Eritrea accuses Ethiopia of plotting to invade
Reuters South Africa, South Africa - October 27, 2007
Eritrea accused arch-foe Ethiopia on Saturday of plotting to invade the Red Sea state ahead of a late-November deadline to mark their disputed border on maps.
Analysts and diplomats fear heightened tensions on the Horn of Africa rivals' frontier could erupt into a new conflict seven years after they fought a war that killed some 70,000 people.
In an online statement on Saturday, the Asmara government said its security agents had uncovered a plot by Addis Ababa.
"Intelligence agencies ... say that (Ethiopia) is intending to launch an invasion against Eritrea in the first week of November 2007 with the blessing of the U.S. Administration," the statement said.
It did not provide any evidence, but it said Ethiopia would prepare by withdrawing troops it has deployed in neighbouring Somalia to avoid "getting engaged along two fronts".
Ethiopian tanks and warplanes helped Somalia's weak interim government oust a hardline Somali Islamist movement -- a group seen by many as supported by Asmara -- in a war late last year.
Ethiopian government officials were not immediately available to comment on the latest allegation ...