KIERAN MURRAY, Addis Ababa | Thursday 4.30pm.
ETHIOPIA declared a decisive victory in its border war against Eritrea on Thursday after Eritrea’s government agreed to withdraw from the territories it occupied at the start of fighting two years ago.
Ethiopia’s government said its army has routed enemy positions on the central front of the war over the past two days and fighting continued on Thursday morning as they chased fleeing Eritrean troops.
”After the Ethiopian blitzkrieg of the last two days, the Eritrean army was demolished at midnight,” said government spokeswoman Selome Taddesse.
”Those few troops that managed to survive the thrashing are being chased and destroyed by the heroic Ethiopian forces as they run for their lives,” she said.
Eritrea earlier announced it will pull back troops from the territories it seized at the outbreak of the border war as the Organisation of African Unity had requested.
”Eritrea has decided, for the sake of peace, to accept the appeal OAU’s appeal for de-escalation,” Eritrea’s foreign ministry said in a statement issued by its UN mission late on Wednesday.
”Eritrea has decided to redeploy its forces to positions held before 6 May 1998,” the statement from the Asmara government said. Withdrawal will start in the Zalambessa area, it said, stressing Eritrea is not surrendering to Ethiopia.
Ethiopian state radio played patriotic songs and said the country’s flag is again flying over the small mountain town of Zalambessa, the focus of fighting on the central front.
The war has dragged on for two years but Ethiopian forces made huge battlefield gains in the past two weeks, driving across the border deep into western Eritrea and then attacking all along the Zalambessa front on Tuesday. — Reuters