Two Killed in Djibouti Flare-Up

by Jordan Yerman | June 11, 2008 at 06:35 am

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The border between Eritrea and Djibouti has been somewhat quiet for the past 12 years, but two Djiboutian troops were killed and 21 wounded in a battle with Eritrean troops earlier today.

The first fighting since 1996 between Eritrea and Djibouti broke out on Tuesday after a nearly two-month standoff. Djibouti hosts French and U.S. military bases and is the main route to the sea for Eritrea's arch-foe Ethiopia.
Djibouti said the clash began after Eritrean soldiers deserted and the Eritreans fired on them, prompting return fire. A second outbreak came when Eritrean soldiers later demanded their deserters back.
Eritrean officials declined to comment and there was no independent confirmation.
Fighting continued on Wednesday in the Mount Gabla area of northern Djibouti, Djibouti's Defence Ministry said.
Also known as Ras Doumeira, it overlooks the strategic Bab al-Mandib straits, which are a major shipping route to and from Europe and the Middle East.

The region is no stranger to border wars, and is also a point of geo-strategy for neighboring as well as far-flung nations. France still has a mutual-defence pact with Djibouti, a former French colony.

The Djiboutian army says nearly 75 percent of its 11,000 troops are now stationed along its boundary with Eritrea, which is one of Africa's most militarised states and has more than 200,000 soldiers as part of a mandatory conscription programme.
Djibouti hosts two foreign military bases, including one of France's biggest overseas contingents and a U.S. counter-terrorism task force of about 2,000 soldiers -- many of them elite special forces.
It is also a vital route for landlocked Ethiopia, which has vowed to protect its shipping access in Djibouti if necessary.
Eritrea and Ethiopia fought a border war in 1998-2000 that killed 70,000 people, and lingering enmity has fuelled conflict in neighbouring Somalia and in Ethiopia's Ogaden region.