Press Release (7:00 a.m. LT)
Ethiopia Launches Large-Scale Offensive on Assab Front

The Ethiopian regime unleashed a large-scale offensive on the Assab front yesterday evening. The all-out attack throughout the entire front was launched at 10:30 p.m. yesterday evening and followed small-scale attacks and intensive shelling during the day. Ethiopia has deployed more than three divisions in the offensive.

Fighting was continuing at press time with Ethiopian forces sustaining huge losses.

As Eritrea has underlined repeatedly, Ethiopia's continuing offensives on the Assab front constitute a flagrant act of invasion in contravention of the UN Security Council resolutions (1297 and 1298) which uphold the sovereignty and territorial integrity of both states as well as the Charters of the OAU and the UN.

Moreover, since Eritrea had redeployed, unilaterally and in accordance with the express appeal of the OAU Chairman to 37 kms. abandoning its traditional position at the border line (71 kms), Ethiopia's invasion is a clear breach of the understandings reached with the OAU Chairman and the partners of the OAU (the United States and the European Union) involved in the peace process. The failure of the OAU and its partners to publicly condemn Ethiopia's repeated acts of invasion on the Assab front and to take appropriate measures for rectification have no doubt encouraged Ethiopia to dwell on its aggression with impunity and have put the credibility of the arrangements in question.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Asmara, 9 June 2000