New fighting in western Eritrea as decision on peace awaited

Ethiopia announced a new “counter-offensive” in western Eritrea on Wednesday. Fierce fighting lasted Tuesday night and continued into Wednesday morning, said a government statement, and Ethiopia had inflicted heavy losses on Eritrean troops. According to the new government claims, Tesseney, close to the Sudanese border, and Guluj had been recaptured. “Having been instructed to deal with any Eritrean provocations in a decisive and vigorous manner, the Ethiopian defence forces launched the counter-offensive on Saturday in response to Eritrean attacks,” the statement said. The announcement contradicted a statement broadcast on Ethiopian radio on Tuesday that “there had never been any military activity in the western front of Guluj apart from mopping up operations by our heroic defence force” and an assertion that because of a “heavy battering” the Eritrean forces had been unable to carry out any sort of “provocative activities” on the Assab-Bure front. The new announcement comes as Ethiopia waits a decision by parliament on whether or not to accept the OAU plan, already accepted by Eritrea. Ethiopia’s Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin said at a news conference on Wednesday that his country’s response to the peace plan was likely to be positive. “But I would not like to take for granted the Ethiopian democratically-institutionalised government. It is up to the government to decide,” he told journalists. No special parliamentary session has been called although the OAU has given Ethiopia until the weekend to reach a final decision on the plan. In response to the new announcement, Eritrean presidential spokesperson Yemane Gebremeskel told IRIN that the new round of fighting demonstrated that Ethiopia had never withdrawn from the west as it claimed: “I think Ethiopia has given a practical response to peace talks, whatever they may be saying.” He called the fighting “simply diversionary” and said fighting had never really stopped despite Ethiopian claims to have destroyed Eritrean positions. “There have been intense battles over the last six to seven days and Ethiopia has lost heavily on the Assab front”. Yemane claimed Ethiopia had opened a new flank on the west because it had “lost heavily and been dislodged” from the central front. The daily propaganda put out routinely by both countries makes the peace deal on the table in Algeria precarious, even though Eritrea has accepted it and Ethiopia has accepted it “in principle”. Since announcing a “decisive” military victory on 31 May, the Ethiopian government has continued to claim “provocation” by an army it declared “annihilated” - raising questions about the original “decisive” victory, or the authenticity of the “provocation” claims. The European Union on Wednesday called on both nations to halt the fighting and sign a ceasefire.