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Ethiopia, Eritrea tensions rising

In a sign of rising tensions between Ethiopia and Eritrea, Ethiopia has been moving troops to that country`s border for some months, with Eritrea giving increasing signs that it is preparing for war with Ethiopia. On October 5, Eritrea banned United Nations reconaissance flights over the Eritrean-Ethiopian border (which is disputed between the two). Since then, that has been the clearest warning signal that hostilities may come sooner rather than later.

Ethiopia`s president meanwhile stated that his country`s troop movements to the border were meant to prevent a miscalculation by Eritrea. Eritrea and Ethiopia fought a First World War-style war in 1998 over several villages, battlefields complete with trenches, that resulted in over 70,000 people being killed by the time the war concluded in 2000.

",We have taken measures and beefed up our defense capabilities around the border since December to prevent any miscalculation by the other side,", Ethiopian President Meles Zenawi told reporters recently. ",We are still hopeful that the other side will not miscalculate.",