(Mar 19, 2012,(VOA))--Ethiopia's military strike against targets in Eritrea last week has opened a new phase on the proxy war the Horn of Africa neighbors have been waging for more than a decade. Attention is focused on a little-known rebel group that is alleged to have been involved in cross-border attacks.
Tension along the Eritrea-Ethiopia border rose late last week when Ethiopian forces struck what they said were military camps inside Eritrea. Spokesman Shimeles Kemal justified the strikes as retaliation against a shadowy rebel group blamed for killing and kidnapping European tourists two months ago in Ethiopia's Afar region.
"The posts attacked had been used by the Eritrean government for training, as a military garrison for these subversive groups," he said. Analysts say the incident is the first cross-border attack by the sides since they ended a two-year border war in 2000. That fighting killed as many as 80,000 people and ended inconclusively.
Eritrea described last week's military incursion as "flagrant aggression" designed to divert attention from Ethiopia's illegal occupation of Eritrean territories. A statement said Eritrea would not be drawn into war with its far bigger neighbor. Ethiopia called the strike a "proportional response" against a proxy group that had been staging terrorist attacks with Eritrea's knowledge and approval.
Ethiopian Foreign Ministry spokesman Dina Mufti accused Eritrea of trying to mask its proxy war on Ethiopia through the use of imaginary rebel groups.
"They have tried to evade responsibility by blaming the act on some organization, dubious organization that is not significant, and that doesn't mean anything in that region," said Mufti. "They have tried to shift the blame to a bogus organization." Read more from Voice of America »
Tension along the Eritrea-Ethiopia border rose late last week when Ethiopian forces struck what they said were military camps inside Eritrea. Spokesman Shimeles Kemal justified the strikes as retaliation against a shadowy rebel group blamed for killing and kidnapping European tourists two months ago in Ethiopia's Afar region.
"The posts attacked had been used by the Eritrean government for training, as a military garrison for these subversive groups," he said. Analysts say the incident is the first cross-border attack by the sides since they ended a two-year border war in 2000. That fighting killed as many as 80,000 people and ended inconclusively.
Eritrea described last week's military incursion as "flagrant aggression" designed to divert attention from Ethiopia's illegal occupation of Eritrean territories. A statement said Eritrea would not be drawn into war with its far bigger neighbor. Ethiopia called the strike a "proportional response" against a proxy group that had been staging terrorist attacks with Eritrea's knowledge and approval.
Ethiopian Foreign Ministry spokesman Dina Mufti accused Eritrea of trying to mask its proxy war on Ethiopia through the use of imaginary rebel groups.
"They have tried to evade responsibility by blaming the act on some organization, dubious organization that is not significant, and that doesn't mean anything in that region," said Mufti. "They have tried to shift the blame to a bogus organization." Read more from Voice of America »
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