Eritrea has lost over 25 soldiers in a clash with Djibouti

By Tesfa-alem Tekle

June 19, 2008 (ADDIS ABABA) — The two-day long clash between Eritrea and Djibouti defense forces earlier this month has killed over 25 Eritrean soldiers. An Eritrean opposition website Awate.com reports.

“Eritrean officials always keep their causalities a secret until a mission or a war comes to an end but according to our military sources Eritrea has lost 25-30 of its soldiers and over 100 others have sustained injuries” it said.

The report said that the above figures are based on only two inside sources while the actual number of causalities by Eritrean side could be far more.

“Eritrean soldiers in the hands of Djibouti are estimated to be 100” it said adding “some are defector and others are prisoners of war where who is who is unknown until ICRC gets involved, a process which might take from months to years.”

The June 10 and 11 incident between the two neighboring countries, a clash which involved heavy armaments but with no Pitched battles have killed 9 Djiboutian soldiers and wounded 60 others.
No Eritrean causality was reported until this point.

According to Awate.com Eritrean soldiers who had a history of bravery are looking for any opportunity to escape and surrender to Djiboutian authorities as a result of the regime’s brutal, compulsory, endless and force full military service.

With Tensions remaining still high world power, America, which has a plan to construct permanent military base in Djibouti, has send 200 of its navy to Djibouti while France has moved two of her war-ships toward Eritrea.

The clash was triggered after some 30 Eritrean soldiers among those Eritrean defense forces originally deployed along the common border fled to Djibouti and Eritrean defense forces open fire toward Djibouti territory to return the soldiers back, an incident which came at a middle of Djibouti’s claim that Eritrean forces were digging trenches in her territory and caused a clash.

(ST)