Eritrean army shelled Badme town with heavy artillery, a local newspaper reported.

According to the news, the Eritrean army fired heavy artilleries last Sunday, June 3, and Tuesday, June 5(yesterday).

Badme primary school was hit and ‘completely destroyed’ by the Eritrean artillery fired on Sunday, around 3am(local time).

Another artillery fired yesterday destroyed a bus, which was parked in the town.

There were no human causalities, however, according to the report by the Amharic language weekly Ethiopian Reporter.

It is not clear if these were the only shooting by the Eritrean army and whether the targets were intended. However, Eritrea army has a reputation for targeting civilian centers.

This news came amid conflicting media reports of the major military clash about 10 days ago between the two countries.

State Minister of Foreign Affairs Amb. Berhane G-Kirstos, however, said yesterday that ‘the only recent new event between the two countries is the abduction of 150 Ethiopian mine workers by Eritrean army’, in response to a question about the media reports of recent clashes.

The Minister called on Eritrea to let the miners return home, without providing details.

It is to be recalled that in mid-April Ethiopian PM Meles Zenawi cited the kidnapping of ‘more than a hundred young gold miners’ from areas in the northern and north-eastern of the country as one of the reasons for the military raids his troops conducted inside Eritrea in the previous month. The other two reasons were the kidnapping of foreign tourists and locals and the repeated Eritrea-sponsored terror plots targeting Ethiopia.

Ethiopian government announced on March 2011 a change of policy on Eritrea claiming to given up on ‘the passive approach it has pursued in the past in dealing with the regime in Asmara’, thus ‘decided to carry out a more active policy, taking measured action against Eritrea’s activities.’

Amb. Berhane underlined yesterday that Ethiopia has the right to retaliate whenever Eritrea causes major harm and that is what we are doing.

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[Updates will be posted on this blog as soon as possible.]

Related:
Update: Conflicting reports on the latest Ethio-Eritrean fighting (June 4, 2012)
Breaking-news | Ethiopian army crushed Eritrean elite force (May 31, 2012)
Ethiopian forces attack Eritrean military posts – Ministry of Defence (March 2012)

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Check the Eritrea archive or the Eritrean terrorism archive for related news and analyses.

Daniel Berhane

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