President Isaias Afwerki, in a nationally televised interview on Saturday evening, said "Eritrea is committed to a peaceful solution of the border conflict" but called on all Eritreans "to be prepared to defend their country from Ethiopian aggression." President Isaias said "Ethiopia's ambitions were now clear in the wake of their preposterous preconditions through their distortion of the OAU Framework for a peaceful resolution of the conflict." The president dismissed Ethiopia's claims of total victory saying "the celebratory attitude they are assuming is completely out of place. They view their forces as completely expendable and yet they harbor such grandiose military objectives. They are shooting themselves in the foot." President Isaias added that Eritrea's military power was completely intact and said "any of Ethiopia's objectives outside of the OAU peace framework will meet with determined Eritrean resistance. We have a better understanding of their desperation and a fuller knowledge of their agenda."

Ethiopia initially denied reports of fighting yesterday saying some cross-border shelling had occurred but that no ground movement took place. However, an 8:00 evening broadcast on state-controlled Ethiopian television and radio retracted the earlier assessment saying, indeed, fighting had raged all day.