Call for “self-defence preparations”

Eritrea’s national assembly has said that Ethiopia “is preparing for another war” and that preparations should be made in self-defence. The 13th regular meeting in Asmara of the Eritrean National Assembly, chaired by President Isayas Afewerki, asserted that Eritrea had “aborted” the last round of Ethiopian aggression and had inflicted “very heavy human and material losses, which were beyond its expectations”. According to an Eritrean state radio report on 30 September, the National Assembly also asserted sustained commitment to the peace process. UN peacekeepers were deployed on the Ethiopian-Eritrean border last week, but the UN Security Council has called on the two sides to go beyond the cessation of hostilities agreed on 18 June and conclude a comprehensive political settlement of the two-year conflict.