(6 Jun 2000) English/Nat
Eritrea claims it has retaken the western town of Tesseney after a day long battle with Ethiopian troops.
The Eritrean army announced on Tuesday that the south west of the country was now fully liberated.
It says it has pushed Ethiopian troops 20 kilometres from the border with Sudan.
Last week Ethiopia had announced it would withdraw from the south west region of Eritrea, but according to the Eritrean army, Ethiopian troops were still in Eritrean territory.
On Tuesday, after heavy fighting, Eritrea announced that they had recaptured the town and had driven Ethiopian troops back some 20 kilometres from the border with Sudan.
SOUNDBITE: ( English)
"We took Tesseney this morning at 6am. It was very hard fighting but we won at last."
SUPER CAPTION: Eritrean soldier
Ethiopia and Eritrea have been at war for over 2 years over a 1000 kilometre long stretch of border.
After a ceasefire lasting several months this year, Ethiopia attacked Eritrea in May, bombing a military airstrip in the capital, Asmara.
In a 12-hour battle on Monday on the western front, Eritrean forces drove Ethiopian forces from Tesseney 30 kilometres (18 miles) south to Guluj, near the Sudanese border.
Eritrea says the Ethiopians army destroyed a main bridge leading into Tesseney and 40 million U-S dollars worth of cotton-producing equipment at a plantation 8 kilometres (5 miles) southwest of the city.
All fronts were reported to be quiet on Tuesday except Bure in the south where there
were low-level artillery exchanges.
Expulsion and repatriation have been weapons in the war between the two Horn of Africa neighbours.
Since fighting began, Ethiopia has sent back at least 68-thousand Eritreans.
And it is reported that thousands of Ethiopians have been rounded up by the Eritrean authorities to await deportation in camps such as this one where facilities are basic.
Aid agencies say there are many more trapped by fighting.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"What we are looking at here is basically a humanitarian timebomb. Each day we hear the ticking of the clock because we have to get to these people. But right now it's very difficult because we can't reach a lot of the people."
SUPER CAPTION: Trevor Rowe, World Food Programme, chief of public affairs
Fear of Ethiopians living here has escalated since Ethiopian forces invaded in May, rekindling an on-again-off-again border war that is believed to have cost
the lives of tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians on both sides.
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