(AP) Addis Ababa – Eritrean soldiers have crossed the border into Djibouti and begun building defences, Djiboutian officials said. “Eritrean soldiers made an incursion into Djibouti territory two or three days ago in the Ras Doumeira area,” an official who did not want to be identified said in a telephone interview.
“The situation is not clear,” he said, adding, “Top level negotiations are under way to resolve the problem.”
Another source said, “There are Eritreans in Doumeira and work is being done.”
The source said trenches had been dug on both sides of the border, with the Eritreans infringing several hundred metres (yards) on to Djiboutian territory.”
However the official said the Eritreans digging the trenches seemed to be civilian labourers and not troops.
“This region is very isolated and it was a week before Djibouti authorities realised what was going on.”
A military source said French forces based in Djibouti had carried out a reconnaissance on Thursday at the government’s request but had not been able to confirm an incursion.
Djibouti and Eritrea have clashed twice in the past over the border area situated at the southern end of Red Sea. In April 1996 they almost went to war after a Djibouti official accused Asmara of shelling the town of Ras Doumeira.
In 1999 Eritrea accused Djibouti of siding with Asmara’s arch-foe Ethiopia while Djibouti alleged its neighbour was supporting Djiboutian rebels and had designs on the Ras Doumeira region, which Eritrea denied.
19 thoughts on “French military denies Eritrean incursion into Djibouti”
What Eritrea needs to do is to shoot down one of those so called French reconnaissance planes. What are they doing in Eastafrica? They live the lifestyle of a movie star, while the natives are fighting for survival. Get out of East africa! You were the problem of all these boundary issues and you can not sit and watch us kill each other. We will solve our own problem.
A military source said French forces based in Djibouti had carried out a reconnaissance on Thursday at the government’s request but had not been able to confirm an incursion.
The above quote from the article seems to be your basis for your topic. But as I see it, this specific statement from an unnamed military source is not good enough to be used as a proof that the French Military has denied Eritrean incursion. Please, let’s not jump in to any conclusion without a reasonable proof.
So far all the news we are getting from every outlet (except ERITV) indicate that the incursion has occured.
Djibouti troops killed on border
Two Djiboutian soldiers have been killed and 17 wounded in border clashes with Eritrean troops, Djibouti says.
Fighting continued on Wednesday morning after clashes broke out on Tuesday following weeks of rising tension.
Djibouti said its forces were forced to fight back after coming under fire from Eritrean troops demanding the return of deserters who had fled to Djibouti.
Last month, Djibouti complained to the UN that Eritrea was fortifying its side of the border.
At the time, Eritrea denied it was planning for war and has not commented so far on the latest incident.
Since Eritrea gained independence in 1993, the Horn of Africa country has been involved in two serious conflicts over territory with its neighbours.
Both US and France have military bases in Djibouti.
Eliase
This whole drama is directed by the evil and bucher of addis meles…he is looking for an excuse to withdraw from somalia….watch carefully, soon meles will give press conference saying that Eritrean action is threat to ethiopian security and he will order his rag tag army to be on alert and he will tell his ruber stump parliament that the threat from eritrea is much larger and our troops are pulling from somalia!! ditto!! so it is a drama…follow the show..first the djubutian president who own hotels in ethiopia made up a story of border problem with eritrea…then the afar rebels were ordered to attack eritrean forces…then djubuti claimed few of its soldiers died ..then it called retired “port authority” guys to pick up army:-) …now Jendai released a statement saying eritrean agression….then create a big tension then give meles an excuse to extracate himself from the quigmire he put himself…what did he achieve nothing ziltch….he just sacrificed poor ethiopian soldiers now he wants to pull out!! what a crime!!
UNITY,
I hear your frustration loud and clear brother/sister. But, I will tell you what the French are doing in East Africa. Like you said, they are sitting pretty (wining and dinning) when our people are condemned to look for what crumbs they can throw at them along the fish and dogs and cats. But they are there because of the dismal African leaders whose stomach precedes their brain (if they have any functioning brain that is). I am pretty upset by these clueless African leaders who sip all sorts of drinks in Addis Ababa when the entire people of Africa can not even find clean water to quench their thirst in a land that is supposed to be the richest continent. Something is definitely wrong with the picture and no one is going to solve the myriad of problems our people face but us! Unfortunately, talking alone is not good enough. We need to support our fighting forces of the EPPF, TPDM, ONLF, OLF, SLF and others. They must coordinate their activity and get rid of the Meles regime to start with. We can only hope to achieve something at a time and may be the useless and really embarrassing jooj majoojs of Africa may finally wake up and take the heed from us. Are we ready to step in to the plate?
Unity I agree with your sentiment. We really need to sort out our problems ( I mean our respective countries’) first. We need to do that fast and start protecting our collective interest. These western governments have no human respect or values.
Blame yourselves, and you will find a solution. Stop getting their aid. Can you? Talk is cheap. If you dont have the fire in the belly just shut up and live like a damn fool. They know what they are doing and you dont, that is the difference.
Sewit (comment #7) stated:
“So far all the news we are getting from every outlet (except ERITV) indicate that the incursion has occured”.
So what? It means nothing. News “Outlets” are like parrots. They simply state what ever it is that one has reported. If, for example, the notorious Tseggay Tadesse of Reuters writes some story, BBC, CNN, AFP, AP and others will report it. That is all.
we are now looking the selfish behavior of westerns for the economic advantage over the poor african people at the expence of our life under dt pretext and now border war with djebouti, perhapes these activities of the western needs a revenge to normalize things. peace
Please, let’s not jump in to any conclusion without a reasonable proof.
It seems you want the war to go on, it is a good news for Ethiopian and Eritrean. This may upset you if you are a TPLF Tug. As PIA says ““those who long for war don’t really know about wars”. TPLF have no idea about war. They are organized criminals no respect for human life, worse than the Westernrs.
“this specific statement from an unnamed military source is not good enough to be used as a proof that the French Military has denied Eritrean incursion. Please, let’s not jump in to any conclusion without a reasonable proof.
So far all the news we are getting from every outlet (except ERITV) indicate that the incursion has occured.”
Some of you want Eritrea to engage in war.
Selam Elias,
This is very old news viewed in terms of how fast events have developed on the ground. The conflict has escalated resulting in exchange of fire and the number of dead according to Djibouti officials have reached 9 with more than 60 injured.
Any person who follows the developments in our region knows that Eritrea has frustrated the US led imperial forces in our region, that is why they are pulling anyhting out of their hats to weaken Eritrea and make Eritrea look like the bad guy at every turn. Eritrea is the only nation that stood up to the US in its invasion of Somalia, don’t be fooled, Woyanne is only executing orders given to him from the US foreign policy establishment, once Eritrea let the Somali freedom fighters have their first congress in Asmara and they fought heroically against all odds and are bleeding the mercernary Woyanne army and winning daily they are scared to death.
They even bribed Sheik Sherif Sheik Ahmed to go to Djibout and sign a bogus agreement with the puppet government of Somalia, that didn’t work so they are frustrated, they want to demoralize the people of Somalia and Ethiopia by threatening Eritrea. That is why the puppet government of Djibouti is crying invasion by Eritrea daily, they are doing all they can to scare Eritrea into not supporting the Somali and Ethiopian resistance movements, that will not happen period. Not only are the Somali resistance leadership based in Asmara, soon the united Ethiopian opposition will be based in Asmara too. The western neo-colonialists are frustrated and scared to death that soon the people of the horn will kick them out for good never to come back again, so it make sense to them to fight with every leverage they think they have. This kinds of battles are nothing new to the Eritrean people, we are used to them and won because we believe in ourselves and know no people can be defeated by the force of arms of western powers. So please take heart soon enough our common enemy will run with their tail between their legs.
I think the Djibutians can not resist even eritreans fighting only with their left hand.
This is a faburaction news by Djibutians and the Woyanes. we Eritreans need to be UNITED as always to defend our beloved country.
Hi It is amazing to hear the border clash between Eritrea and Djibouti. Well, I know Ismail Omer Ghele of Djibouti he is a clone of Somali Issa tribe and Ethiopian Diredawa Descendant.
This is well calculated as Essayas said . I believe so. We have nothing with Djibouti. Meles is stirring too get pretext to build up his troops around the Red Sea and get his ambition. This is calculated , but eritreans already got the solution for his calculation.
We know that and we are always ready for every attack. This is our history of hundred of years. Well, Eritrea will never kneel dowm and the problem will be not only for Djibouti but for the entire horn.
I know Djibouti very well. Their survivsl is with the help of France and Saudi Arabia.
If they want to live in war like their neighbors, welcome join the group and will see the outcome.
Before that we better mediate and talk in a peaceful solution. If you say NO!!
we will say welcome to Future Djiboutian Refugees!!!
Thanks
Either Djibouti, Ethiopia, who ever, won’t be able to kneel us down, as long the unity of our people persist and good governing is provided to the people.
The current event in Eritrea & Djibouti is just DRAMA, designed by the enemies of the Horn-Of-Africa, aimed to destabilize the region.
Awet n’Hafash
All is said, however let’s just emphasize this is Concocted animosity by state department and the mercenary minority Meles regime. It is very sad in todays world to see Adolf Hitler’s tactics to start a war. We shall persistently argue the Holocaust want repeat war machines that we are not damn anymore.
viva djibouti i love this countrie best of africa
I am a Djibouti native and I hate guelle, which has committed crimes and genocides against afar people. Unfortunately what Issaias did was not pretty to occupied land that belong to Djibouti. By doing this he helps Guelle to continue stay in power. I wish Issaias to help the Afar djiboutian rebel to chase down guelle and brought to justice to pay his crime.