Eritrea on Thursday denied any hostile intentions towards neighbouring Djibouti following a border clash in which two Djibouti soldiers were killed.
Dozens of Djibouti soldiers were also wounded in the disputed Ras Doumeira border area on Tuesday when Eritrean soldiers opened fire on deserters, diplomatic and military sources said.
The incident was the first since a tense border stand-off was triggered by an Eritrean military incursion into Djibouti on April 16.
”As the Eritrean government has repeatedly asserted, although it is closely and patiently following up the developments and its sponsors, it hereby reiterates that it would under no circumstances get involved in an invitation of squabbles and acts of hostility designed to undermine good-neighbourliness,” the Eritrean Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The Djibouti Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Wednesday accusing Eritrea of seeking to destabilise the Horn of Africa region by attacking Djibouti and vowed to use all available means to defend itself.
The United States has warned its nationals against travelling to the Djibouti-Eritrean border.
The UUS has more than 1 200 troops stationed in Djibouti, which hosts an anti-terrorism task force in the Horn of Africa. France also has a base in its former colony.
The two nations have clashed at least twice over the border area at the southern end of the Red Sea.
In April 1996 they almost went to war after a Djibouti official accused Eritrea of shelling Ras Doumeira.
In 1999, Eritrea accused Djibouti of siding with Asmara’s arch-foe, Ethiopia, while Djibouti accused its neighbour of supporting Djiboutian rebels having designs on the Ras Doumeira region. Eritrea has denied this.
Djibouti has accused Eritrean forces of digging trenches on both sides of the border on April 16, infringing several hundred metres into Djibouti territory. The Eritrean government has denied the accusation. — AFP
