Eritrea on Monday denied accusations by Ethiopia that it was behind three separate explosions that rocked Addis Ababa last week and wounded four people. Yemane Gebremeskel, director of the president’s office, told Agence France-Presse that the weekend accusations by Addis Ababa were meant to shift “attention from their own domestic problems”.
“This is outrageous and without foundation,” Yemane said.
On Sunday, Ethiopian federal police said in statement that Asmara backed the perpetrators of the blasts and that the bombs had been supplied by Eritrea.
The two Horn of Africa nations have had sour relations since they fought a two-year war in the hot and mainly arid highlands of the border region from 1998 to 2000, which claimed some 80 000 lives and ended with a peace pact negotiated in Algeria.
Following the peace deal, the two countries agreed to the terms of a 2002 independent border commission, but thus far Ethiopia has refused to fully implement the agreement, heightening tension between the two countries. — AFP