Why is the border a flashpoint?<\/strong><\/p>\n A full-scale war broke out between Ethiopia and Eritrea in May 1998 and focused on the town of Badme, which both sides claimed belonged to them. Eritrea was found to have triggered the war by attacking Ethiopian troops around Badme, according to a 2005 ruling<\/a> by the Eritrea-Ethiopia Claims Commission, a body based in The Hague that was established to deal with the conflict\u2019s fallout. Over the next two years, tens of thousands of soldiers were killed on both sides in a bloody battle that achieved very little in terms of concrete boundary changes.<\/p>\n The conflict ended in December 2000 after a peace accord known as the Algiers Agreement was signed by both parties. One condition of the agreement was the establishment of a boundary commission that in 2002 ruled that Badme was part of Eritrea. While both countries initially accepted the ruling, Ethiopia later said it was dissatisfied with the boundary and Badme continues to be occupied by Ethiopian troops. \u201cEritrea and Ethiopia have essentially been in a Cold War since the last war in 1998-2000,\u201d says Ahmed Salim of political risk consultancy Teneo Intelligence.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n An Eritrean soldier looks through a spyhole on the frontline in Badme, Eritrea, March 2, 2000. Tens of thousands of people died in the two-year border war between Eritrea and Ethiopia.<\/span>SS\/CLH\/REUTERS<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n What\u2019s happened this time?<\/strong><\/p>\n Following reports from residents living on the Ethiopian side of the border of hearing heavy gunfire, Eritrea accused Ethiopia on Sunday of infringing its territory. \u201cThe TPLF regime has… unleashed an attack against Eritrea on the Tsorona Central Front,\u201d Eritrea\u2019s Information Ministry said in a statement released overnight Sunday and reported by Reuters<\/a>. The TPLF refers to the Tigrayan People\u2019s Liberation Front, a member of Ethiopia\u2019s ruling coalition.<\/p>\n Besides the claim from the Eritrean government in the capital Asmara, however, there is very little confirmed detail of what happened. Ethiopia\u2019s Information Minister Getachew Reda told the BBC<\/a> he was not aware of any fighting, and details coming out of Eritrea have been scant, with the country having a notoriously closed media.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n What could the clashes lead to?<\/strong><\/p>\n If significant fighting has occurred, it is unlikely that either side will want to escalate the conflict, according to Jason Mosley, a Horn of Africa expert and associate fellow at Chatham House. \u201cIt\u2019s not in [Ethiopia\u2019s] interest to precipitate the collapse of the Eritrean state. The Eritreans are certainly not in a position militarily to want to escalate to a full-scale conflict with Ethiopia,\u201d says Mosley.<\/p>\n Eritrea is notorious for its conscription program. The compulsory national service program, which can often last for decades, continues to be indefinite, according to Amnesty International<\/a>, despite the government in Asmara pledging in 2014 to limit national service to 18 months. The program is an oft-cited reason given by migrants and refugees fleeing the country\u2014in 2015, Eritrea was the African country with the highest number of people applying for asylum in Europe. According to Mosley, \u201cepisodic reminders\u201d of the \u201cexistential threat from Ethiopia\u201d are useful to the Eritrean government in justifying its program. \u201cWhatever the mechanics of what has or hasn\u2019t happened… the Eritrean state will probably try to portray this to the fullest extent it can as evidence of a very aggressive Ethiopian posture,\u201d says Mosley.<\/p>\n Are the clashes connected to Ethiopia\u2019s Oromia crisis?<\/strong><\/p>\n Since November 2015, Ethiopia has been dealing with large-scale protests among members of the Oromo ethnic group, the country\u2019s majority ethnicity. These have resulted in a crackdown in which hundreds of people have been killed<\/a>, according to Human Rights Watch. The Ethiopian government has said that Eritrea has backed the protests, which were initially sparked by plans to expand the capital Addis Ababa<\/a>that would entail relocating Oromo farmer families.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n People mourn the death of a man accused of protesting and shot by Ethiopian forces in Yubdo Village in Ethiopia’s Oromia region, December 17, 2015. Ethiopia has blamed the Oromo protests partially on Eritrea.<\/span>ZACHARIAS ABUBEKER\/AFP\/GETTY IMAGES<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n But according to Mosley, the Oromia crisis is an internal affair and has nothing to do with Ethiopia and Eritrea\u2019s border disputes. \u201c[The Oromo protests] is the reaction from a certain educated strata of Ethiopian society about being completely blocked out of negotiations around the development planning,\u201d says Mosley. \u201cIt\u2019s not an Eritrean plot, this is an Ethiopian ruling party failing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Eritrea shares a 640-mile boundary with its Horn of Africa neighbor, from whom it only gained independence in 1991. The two countries fought a bloody two-year war over border boundaries between 1998 and 2000, since which bilateral relations have been characterized by a \u201cno war, no peace\u201d situation. \u00a0Now, Eritrea has blamed Ethiopia for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"_ml_titleColor":"#000000","_ml_titleFont":"Roboto","_ml_titleFontSize":1.1359999999999998987476601541857235133647918701171875,"_ml_titleFontWeight":"400","_ml_titleLineHeight":1.3000000000000000444089209850062616169452667236328125,"_ml_metaColor":"#708090","_ml_metaFont":"Montserrat","_ml_metaFontSize":0.67849999999999999200639422269887290894985198974609375,"_ml_metaFontWeight":"400","_ml_metaLineHeight":0.92000000000000003996802888650563545525074005126953125,"_ml_bodyColor":"#a9a9a9","_ml_bodyFont":"Open Sans","_ml_bodyFontSize":0.84999999999999997779553950749686919152736663818359375,"_ml_bodyFontWeight":"400","_ml_bodyLineHeight":1.1999999999999999555910790149937383830547332763671875,"_ml_wooPriceColor":"#666","_ml_wooPriceFont":"Open Sans","_ml_wooPriceFontSize":0.90000000000000002220446049250313080847263336181640625,"_ml_wooPriceFontWeight":"400","_ml_wooPriceLineHeight":1.270000000000000017763568394002504646778106689453125,"_ml_headingColor":"#000","_ml_headingFont":"Merriweather","_ml_headingFontSize":2.020000000000000017763568394002504646778106689453125,"_ml_headingFontWeight":"700","_ml_headingLineHeight":1.4699999999999999733546474089962430298328399658203125,"_mlglobal_userfontcolors":{"headingColorUser":[],"titleColorUser":[],"metaColorUser":[],"bodyColorUser":[],"wooPriceColorUser":[]},"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"Eritrean](\"http:\/\/s.newsweek.com\/sites\/www.newsweek.com\/files\/styles\/full\/public\/2016\/06\/13\/oromia-mourning..jpg "\\"\\"")
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