WEDNESDAY, 6.00PM:
ETHIOPIAN troops, tanks and heavy artillery crossed the border into Eritrea at dawn on Wednesday morning, the Eritrean foreign ministry said on Wednesday.
The invasion, which has not been confirmed by independent sources, is an escalation of a tense border stand-off that has seen at least 100 people killed or wounded since Sunday. Hundreds more have been reported missing. Skirmishes have continued since then in the regions of Aiga and Indalgeda, about 190km from the Tigre capital, Mekele.
Wednesday’s attack was againmst positions in southern Eritrea, the foreign ministry said.
An Ethiopian official confirmed in Addis Ababa that there were artillery exchanges between the two armies, with Eritrean troops attempting to recapture positions around Aiga. “There were victims,” he added.
Both countries moved troops to the border after a skirmish on May 12 in which 16 people were killed, hostages taken and buildings destroyed.
Eritrean President Isaias Afeworki was quoted in an Ethiopian newspaper as saying: “Withdrawal is morally unacceptable and is never, never going to happen. The border demarcation between Eritrea and Ethiopia is one of the most clearly defined in the region.”
Eritrea became formally independent from Ethiopia in 1993.