Eritrea accuses Ethiopia, Sudan of sponsoring ‘terrorism’

ASMARA, May 26 (AFP) — Eritrea Wednesday charged the governments of Sudan and Ethiopia with responsibility for a bomb blast that killed three people in the west of the country, accusing its fellow Horn of Africa states of sponsoring “terrorism.”

“Terrorist acts in different areas of Gash-Barka region sponsored by the TPLF (Ethiopian) and Khartoum regimes to disrupt the 13th Independence Day anniversary celebrations have been foiled by Eritrean security force, except the one in Barentu town,” the information ministry said.

Earlier Wednesday, United Nations officials in Asmara said three people were killed and 50 seriously wounded overnight when a bomb exploded in the Eritrean town of Barentu.

“The bomb exploded on Tuesday at 11:45 pm in the center of (the western town of) Barentu where people had gathered to dance and celebrate” the country’s independence anniversary, said one UN official, who asked not to be named.

“At least three people were killed and 50 severely injured,” another Un official said.

The information ministry gave no indication of casualties in the Barentu blast but said “some of the terrorists who were deployed by the TPLF and Khartoum regimes to carry out acts of terrorism were killed and others captured.”

The governments in Addis Ababa and Khartoum “have been training and arming different terrorist groups and continuously infiltrating such groups into Eritrean territory with the intention of engaging in futile attempts to undermine peace and security of the population,” the ministry said, quoting a senior Eritrean government official, whom it did not name.

Eritrea has tense relations with Sudan and Ethiopia, and has accused the two countries of forming an “axis of belligerence” together with Yemen.

Asmara has denied accusations by Khartoum that it is backing rebels in Sudan’s western Darfur region.