ADDIS ABABA Ethiopia has moved military reinforcements toward the Yirga border area where fighting took place earlier this week between Ethiopia and Eritrea, witnesses said Saturday. Witnesses contacted by AFP said they saw a convoy of 30 to 40 armored trucks heading north late Thursday from the large Ethiopian military base at Debre Zeit, which is 40 kilometres (24 miles) from Addis Ababa. These troop movements started Tuesday when the fighting occurred in the border area, but were continuing Thursday, the witnesses said.

On Friday, Radio Fana of the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front charged that Eritrean troops were several dozen kilometres inside Ethiopian territory. The radio said Eritrean troops had occupied the border town of Bademe and were approaching Shiraro, in the so-called Yirga triangle of northwest Ethiopia's Humera region. A day after the alleged incursion the Ethiopian government demanded the unconditional withdrawal of Eritrean troops from Humera, warning that it would respond firmly to violation of its territory following clashes in the area.

But Eritrean Foreign Minister Haile Weldensae on Thursday countered by accusing Ethiopian troops of aggression, saying that the fighting had been in southwestern Eritrea. At Eritrea's formal independence from Ethiopia in May 1993, the border remained unclear, and Eritrea claims a historical right to Humera dating from colonial times. Eritrea's ambassador to Addis Ababa said Friday his country was open to all mediation in the conflict, and invited international intervention to resolve the dispute, which reportedly has cost several lives among Ethiopian troops.

(AFP)