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Eritrea accuses Ethiopia of using mercenaries

    NAIROBI

    An Eritrean government statement on Tuesday said that Ethiopia had hired 250 “mercenaries and foreign experts” in its air force, in order to capture Asmara in the shortest possible time. This ambition, however, had been foiled by the Eritrean defence forces. Spokesman Yemane insisted to IRIN that the Eritrean air force had no foreign nationals as pilots. Diplomatic sources said that as far as they were aware, this was indeed the case. Both Ethiopia and Eritrea have built up their air forces with warplanes supplied by the former Soviet Union. Yemane confirmed that the planes were supplied with personnel for maintenance, repair and training “for a limited period”. During the last round of hostilities between the two sides in February, western diplomatic sources reported both sides had used Russian or other former Soviet Union pilots to fly their MiG-29 and Sukhoi-27 aircraft.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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