Fighting Between Ethiopia, Eritrea Rages on Eve of Talks

Fighting raged Sunday between Eritrea and Ethiopia on the eve of peace talks between the two countries, opening a new front in a smoldering humanitarian crisis.

Infantry and artillery clashes--the heaviest fighting to date in the 2-year-old border war between the Horn of Africa neighbors--threaten to uproot 200,000 people around the central Eritrean city of Mendefera, the United Nations warned. The 2-week-old Ethiopian offensive already has sent nearly one-seventh of Eritrea’s people fleeing north, some into neighboring Sudan, the Eritrean government says.

Trucks, buses and vans poured into the grounds of a school about 20 miles north of Mendefera, disgorging hundreds of evacuees, mostly women and children, each carrying a bulging plastic bag or two of their belongings.

“We have only these pieces of clothes,” said 70-year-old Bisrat Berhe, pinching the hem of her skirt as she crouched under the eaves of a primary school that in the past day had become home to 18,000 Eritreans.

At least 6,000 new arrivals were expected by day’s end, said Simon Nhongo, a U.N. official.

Ethiopia is pursuing its retreating adversary miles deep into Eritrea, sending citizens into panicked flight ahead of the advance.

Eritrea agreed last week to withdraw from all disputed territory and return to talks set for today in Algeria on resolving the war over the poorly demarcated border.

Ethiopia has made plain its bargaining strategy for the talks.

“We shall negotiate while we fight and we shall fight while we negotiate,” Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said last week.

Sunday morning, Ethiopian warplanes bombed a nearly completed power plant near the port city of Massawa, Eritrea’s Foreign Ministry said, calling the attack “vandalism and senseless destruction.”

Ethiopia said the attack was on a military installation. It accused Eritreans of shelling its forces near Bure, one of the eastern towns from which they had pledged to withdraw.