Continuing offensive defies Security Council

Ethiopian troops on Thursday pushed deep into Eritrean territory on the western front and took Barentu, the strategic regional town and supply route, only hours after a UN Security Council imposed an arms embargo and demanded that military engagement stop. Journalists taken to the frontline reported that, despite calls to halt the war, Ethiopia was continuing the offensive and sending in reinforcements, insisting it had the right to “defend” its sovereignty. Using helicopter gunships, fighter bombers and heavy artillery, Ethiopia now controlled “much of the skies of the Western Mereb front without Eritrean response”, a BBC journalist reported from the territory.

The journalist reported seeing “mile upon mile of abandoned Eritrean trenches previously heavily defended” high in the mountains. A new political dimension now complicated what was previously essentially a border conflict, as Ethiopia had to decide whether to hand back territorial gains or annex the territory, the BBC report said.