1. Around 800 Eritreans expelled from Ethiopia arrived yesterday morning at the town of Zalambessa, while another 110 Eritrean deportees came through Om Hajer, in the western lowlands. This brings the total number of Eritreans deported from Ethiopia over the weekend to 1,950.
Earlier on Friday, a group of Eritrean deportees were left to walk the dangerous distance between the Ethiopian and Eritrean army trenches. The 1,040 Eritreans, deported from Addis Ababa and its surroundings, were ordered to leave Fatsi, an Ethiopian army garrison on the Zalambessa front, at 3:30 a.m. The deportees arrived on the Eritrean side of the border safely. Many of the detainees said they had been imprisoned, and some of them were harassed because their deported spouses gave interviews here in Eritrea. The number of Eritrean deportees from Ethiopia has reached over 15,000. 2. A hundred and seventy-eight Ethiopians who were residing in different parts of Eritrea left Asmara this morning for their country. These Ethiopians departed of their own free will after completing immigration requirements. Some of these Ethiopians said they were going to Ethiopia because their stay in Eritrea endangered their parents' lives. They said they want to secure the release of their parents detained by the Ethiopian government by returning home. The Eritrean government arranged for the International Committee of the Red Cross to monitor and accompany the Ethiopian nationals to the border where they will be met by more ICRC representatives from Ethiopia. 3. President Isaias Afwerki sent messages of condolence to President Moi of Kenya, Tanzanian President Mkapa and President Clinton of the United States on Friday following the bombing of the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam. The president expressed his grief and shock over the terrorist attacks which have killed and injured over one thousand civilians. Afwerki reiterated Eritrea's stance on any acts of terrorism aimed at disrupting the peace and stability of the region. 4. The Eritrean national football team left yesterday for Egypt to play its African Cup qualifying match against Ethiopia. Because of the border dispute between the two nations, the home and away matches scheduled for this month had been canceled. The Confederation of African Football rescheduled the two matches into a single game for August 23 in Cairo. Eritrea had expressed its preference for a neutral country to host the match in the light of Ethiopia's continued detention and expulsion of Eritreans living in Ethiopia. Veronica Rentmeesters, Information Officer
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