Region wary as Ethiopia, Eritrea border war worsens

Feud:Settling old soresADDIS ABABA — Ethiopia has stepped up its war of nerves with long time arch-rival Asmara by raiding rebel bases inside neighbouring Eritrea on Thursday. Addis Ababa accused the regime in Eritrea of training fighters who staged an attack in January attack that killed five Western tourists.Ethiopia routinely accuses Asmara of supporting Ethiopian separatist groups. It blamed an Afar rebel movement for the kidnapping of Westerners in its northern Afar region in 2007, and again for the attack in the same area in January.The Inter-Development Authority on Development (IGAD) is said to be closely monitoring the situation amid growing fears that the region cannot afford armed conflicts with Somalia still on the boil and Sudan and South Sudan yet to resolve their simmering dispute.The two countries which share a history, routinely accuse one another of supporting separatist groups and terrorist. Addis Ababa, which is a valued partner of the US in its global war on terror, charges that Eritrea supports an Afar rebel movement for the kidnapping of Westerners in its northern Afar region in 2007, and again for the attack in the same area in January this year.It was the first attack by Ethiopian troops inside Eritrea since the end of a 1998-2000 war that killed 80,000 people and which it still festers because the frontier dispute that ignited the conflict remains unresolved.“Our national defence force has today taken measures against military posts inside Eritrea in which subversive and anti-peace elements were trained,” government spokesman Shimeles Kemal told reporters.Gunmen killed two Germans, two Hungarians and an Austrian in a dawn attack on a group of tourists in the remote Afar region on Jan. 17, and seized two Germans and two Ethiopians.A rebel group in the Afar region said last week it had freed the two Germans, although there has been no official confirmation of the release.“These groups are operating in the Afar area. We know for certain that the Eritrean government harbours, supports, trains and deploys subversive groups that occasionally launch attacks on civilian and infrastructure targets inside Ethiopia,” he said.Shimeles said Ethiopian soldiers attacked three places — Ramid, Gelahbe and Gimbi — 16 km inside southeastern Eritrea. “We will continue our measures as long as they remain a launching pad for similar attacks,” he said.