Five years after the independence referendum, all seemed to be going well between the two former enemies. Trade had resumed and cordial relations prevailed between Asmara and Addis Ababa. The Presidents of the two states were actually related to one another and could solve most problems with a quick telephone call. But the issue of the border demarcation had never been fully solved and as a result there were several overlapping claims on each side. Little is known about what touched off this conflict except that there was a shooting incident between Eritrean officers and Ethiopian troops outside the border village of Bademe in the spring of 1998. Suddenly, everything spun out of control.

The Ethiopian President, Meles Zenawi, was eager to show he wouldn't be pushed around by the upstart Ertirean state. The Eritrean President, Issaias Afewerki, was eager to show he wasn't intimidated by his larger neighbor. Within days, the two armies were back at war and skirmishes were breaking out all along the border. A US-brokered cease fire brought several months of peace near the end of 1998, which both sides used to mobilize armies and buy arms from abroad.

In February 1999 the Ethiopians scrapped the cease fire and went for Bademe. Thousands of Ethiopian troops supported by tanks attacked across the barren desert in a massive World War I-style assault. They were cut down by the thousands. Sensing victory, the Eritreans climbed out of their trenches and counter attacked right into a second human wave assault. With so many caught out in the open, the casualties soared to frightful levels in the hand to hand combat. The Eritreans were dislodged from Bademe as a result and they were forced to retreat ten miles. Weeks later a similar assault hit them at Tsorona but they held their ground and reportedly destroyed 30 Ethiopian tanks and killed 10,000 soldiers in the 60 hour battle.

By the time an armistice was signed in 2000, nearly 100,000 had been killed over a few forgettable desert villages. An independent commission recently ruled that Bademe should be in Eritrea, even though the Eritreans were pushed back at almost every place along the boder where the Ethiopians attacked. Implementation of this decision will be problematic and could very well lead to another war.

Future Implications

At the end of the Eritrean war of independence, a great deal of hope was hanging on the countries in the Horn of Africa. President Clinton hailed the new leaders of Ethiopia and Eritrea as model statesmen who would lead Africa out of its continued cycles of violence and chaos. Eritrea's Afewerki and Ethiopia's Menawi, both veteran guerrilla soldiers, were friends who coordinated to defeat Mengistu's Soviet state. The two new leaders had plenty of problems to deal with but consistent warfare was not one of them. Ethiopia needed Eritrea's ports to export and Eritrea needed the Ethiopian hinterlands for crops and minerals. Even the colonial administrators understood that Eritrea was of little use without a close connection with Ethiopia.

But all the hope was dashed when the two countries raced back to the war over an insignificant little desert village. The pride of the two leaders seems to have overshadowed their desire to work together to solve the myriad problems their countries share. Eritrea now has lost all the Ethiopian shipping traffic and its ports sit idle. (Ethiopia now uses neighboring Djibouti's port facilities.) While on a war footing, both countries have found it convenient to use that excuse to crack down on personal liberties, the press, and opposition political parties. Meanwhile, famine stalks the Sahel and the high numbers of people mobilized in the armies are away from their jobs and are beginning to drag down the national productivity of each country.