Three Eritrean soldiers, two civilians defect to Ethiopia

ADDIS ABABA, Feb 2 (AFP) — Three members of the Eritrean defence forces and two civilians have defected to Ethiopia after crossing the Mereb river on the closed border between the two countries, the official Ethiopian news agency (ENA) reported Monday.

The three Eritrean soldiers, two from Eritrea’s 16th army division one from the 42nd division, gave themselves up to Ethiopian troops at the weekend, according to ENA.

The two civilians, a second-year university student and a high school graduate, said they ran away for fear of being conscripted into the Eritrean army.

In the past five months, 28 Eritreans, including soldiers and civilians, have defected to Ethiopia.

Last month, Ethiopia gave tens of thousands of Eritreans living in the country the option of becoming Ethiopian citizens or applying for residency permits to allow them to live in the country legally.

Eritrea was a province of Ethiopia for over 40 years before winning independence in 1991.

Relations between Ethiopia and Eritrea area strained over the ruling of the Ethiopia-Eritrea Boundary Commission, an international body set up under a peace accord the two states signed in 2000 after two years of war, and which committed them to accepting the commission’s ruling on their border as “final and binding”.

But Ethiopia has criticised this judgement, released in 2002, mainly over the attribution of the contested border town of Badme to Eritrea.