Press Update (7:00 a.m. LT)
Over 11,000 Ethiopian Soldiers Put Out of Action in the Week-Long Battles on the Assab Front

The Eritrean Armed Forces have released the figures for Ethiopia's staggering losses on the Assab front for the battles that raged from 5 to 11 June 2000. Four Ethiopian divisions with additional units were employed in these battles.

The Ethiopian army launched three successive offensives in those six days. On June 5 and 6, Ethiopian launched medium scale attacks on the Assab front employing four brigades in total.

Ethiopia then unleashed a large-scale offensive by deploying three divisions and additional units at 10:30 p.m. on Thursday, June 8. This offensive continued with high intensity for more than 48 hours when it was totally repulsed around 11:00 p.m. Saturday. The invading Ethiopian army was driven back to its original positions with the following staggering losses:
* 4,125 Ethiopian soldiers killed (actual body count),
* 7,110 wounded, including some taken prisoner,
* seven tanks and two Zu-23 mounted armored vehicles destroyed, and
* huge quantities of light and medium weapons, and communication radios captured.
Ethiopian POWs captured in these battles invariably attest that their mission "was to capture Assab." The POWs also speak of special Ethiopian army units assigned for exhorting the army to march forward in columns of human waves, threatening and shooting those who retreated or broke the columns under intense fire from the Eritrean Defence Forces.

Ethiopia unleashed the offensives on Assab at 37 kms., deep inside Eritrean sovereign territory in violation of the OAU agreement. Eritrea had withdrawn to 37 km. from its fortifications at 71 km. (the established boundary) on May 27 in response to the appeal of the OAU Chairman, a fact confirmed by the US State Department and members of the diplomatic corps and international press in the country who visited the new frontline.

Ethiopia's offensives on Assab thus constitute a clear act of invasion in violation of an OAU agreement and UN Security Council Resolutions (1297 and 1298) underlining respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of both countries.

Ethiopian forces have also been dislodged from strategic positions on the left flank of the Senafe front on Saturday.

As Ethiopia continued its war of invasion in Eritrea, it failed to give a clear response to the OAU proposal for an agreement on a cessation of hostilities. Eritrea announced its acceptance of the proposal through a formal letter of acceptance from the Foreign Minister to the OAU special envoy on Friday evening. Ethiopia however declined to make its position known within the given deadline under the lame excuse that "the matter will be considered by the Ethiopian leadership." The need for "internal consultations" was the transparent dilatory tactic that Ethiopian invoked last September in order to buy time for its military preparations before finally rejecting the Technical Arrangements.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Asmara, 12 June 2000