Eritreans complete redeployment on Bure front

A group of diplomats, military attaches and journalists were taken on Tuesday from Asmara to the eastern front near Bure to confirm the redeployment of Eritrean forces, some 20 km back from the positions they had held since 1998. New frontline defences were being built at Debra Asema, 57 km along the main road towards the Ethiopian border from the port of Assab, on an exposed, rocky plateau. Heavy artillery had been moved behind the front line and the group witnessed Eritrean troops digging trenches and building stone fortifications. Major-General “China” Haile Samuel told the group his forces had redeployed as a result of instructions from Asmara which had come last Friday. The redeployment had been completed on Sunday, he said, adding that his forces had followed Asmara’s instructions reluctantly because “we have held that line without problems for two years”.

Journalists who visited the eastern front earlier, before the latest outbreak of fighting, reported that the Eritreans had built a huge warren of connected trenches and fortifications, which they would have been unwilling to abandon. Tuesday’s group was taken to a second line of defence, 42 km from Assab, where the Eritreans were consolidating their positions. The group saw no fighting, but were not permitted to go to the front line because of what the Eritreans described as “aerial activity”.