CAROL PINEAU, Dekemhare, Eritrea | Sunday 6.00pm.
ETHIOPIAN troops pounded positions inside Eritrea and forced thousands of civilians to flee toward safety on Sunday, a day before the Horn of Africa neighbors were due to meet in Algiers for indirect talks.
The fresh frontlines were around Senafe, Tsorona and Adi Quala, south of the capital. “The central frontlines are all now connected,” presidential office spokesman Yemane Gebremeskel said.
An Eritrean foreign ministry statement also confirmed that on Sunday Ethiopian aircraft had bombed a new Eritrean power plant near the strategic port of Massawa.
The humanitarian crisis continued to spiral at the weekend, as thousands of people flooded roads, heading toward pick-up stations in towns such as Dekemhare, waiting for government buses to take them to makeshift reception centres.
Dekemhare is 40km east of Asmara,
Ethiopian shelling pushed some 256000 people out of Senafe, 25km north of the border, and Adi Keih, 50km, also north of the border).
The figure was on top of some 550000 people displaced by last week’s fighting.
Eritrean officials said displaced civilians were in desperate need of food, water and medecine. Many were fleeing fighting for the second time.
Senafe had been surrounded by several displacement camps set up soon after fighting broke first out in May 1998. The camps have now been evacuated.
Despite military gains by Addis Ababa, Asmara continued to insist that Ethiopia would soon run out of steam.
The Organisation of African Unity (OAU) has appealed to both countries to pull back to pre-war positions.
Eritrea and Ethiopia are due to return to the negotiating table in Algiers on Monday, three weeks after the last talks broke down, and in the absence of a ceasefire. — AFP