Ceasefire violations denied

In the latest salvo of a war of words with its northern neighbour, Ethiopia has denied as “totally false” charges that its aircraft violated the border war ceasefire by penetrating deep into Eritrean territory. A ‘Radio Ethiopia’ report on Tuesday quoting a foreign ministry official said that Ethiopia had itself requested an investigation into the alleged incident on 17 July, in which Eritrea claimed three Ethiopian planes flew over the Red Sea town of Assab. In a letter to the UN Security Council this week, Eritrea said two of the aircraft had been “hit” by anti-aircraft fire and described the action as a violation of the 18 June ceasefire. But the official radio said the charges had only been made public after Addis Ababa had requested an investigation to the accusations: “Ethiopia has in letters to all concerned bodies categorically rejected the allegation as totally false and pure fabrication.” Meanwhile, another Ethiopian radio report monitored by the BBC has alleged that Eritrean forces had rounded up over 1,500 Ethiopians from Tigray Province residing in Eritrea.