Foreigners Flee Eritrea as Border Feud Escalates

ASMARA, Eritrea —  With a border dispute escalating into bombing raids, hundreds of foreigners scrambled out of Eritrea on Saturday, fearing it will be engulfed in war with Ethiopia. One of their main escape routes came under attack for a second straight day.

Ethiopian jets again bombed a military-civilian airport not far from Asmara, forcing embassies to step up their exit plans.

American, Italian, German and British planes ferried foreigners out of harm’s way late Saturday after Ethiopia agreed to temporarily halt bombing.

Weary expatriates crowded the airport parking lot, waiting for evacuation flights. Angered and confused by the sudden violence in this capital of broad boulevards and modern buildings, no one wanted to talk about the decision to go.

“In principle, this is the last of the evacuations, but in practice, if someone wants to leave we’ll try to help,” said French Ambassador Louis Le Vert.

Late Saturday, American and other foreign diplomats met with Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi in Addis Ababa and received a pledge that Ethiopian warplanes would suspend their bombing of the airport from Saturday evening until this morning so evacuations could take place, Italian Ambassador Marcello Ricoveri said.

Afterward, German military aircraft carrying 210 Europeans took off for Jidda, Saudi Arabia, the German Defense Ministry said. And a British air force plane picked up the remaining 40 Britons and about 60 Australian, Canadian and South African nationals and left for Jidda, the British Defense Ministry said.

Le Vert said two U.S. and two Italian planes also carried foreigners from Asmara to neighboring Djibouti, but he did not know how many people were aboard.

When the U.S. planes arrived, Marines jumped out and deployed into combat position, startling Eritreans working at the airport, which was under a cease-fire.

Earlier Saturday, a plane with 194 people aboard arrived in Frankfurt, Germany.

The number of foreigners still waiting to be evacuated from Eritrea, a small country wedged between northern Ethiopia and the Red Sea, was not known.

With the attacks on Asmara’s airport, a quick resolution to the crisis appeared unlikely.

“At the moment, I’m not seeing any light at the end of the tunnel,” Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki told reporters.

There was no word on casualties from Saturday’s bombing, but Eritrea claimed to have shot down one of the Ethiopian MIG-23 fighter-bombers and to have captured its pilot; Ethiopia confirmed the downing.

A source in the Ethiopian Foreign Ministry said his forces had shot down an Eritrean MIG over northeastern Ethiopia on Friday and troops had taken the pilot into captivity. At the same time, he denied that Eritrea had downed any of its planes Friday.

A source familiar with the Eritrean air force, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Ethiopia clearly was trying to wipe out Eritrea’s small air force, which consists of a half-dozen aging Soviet-era MIG fighter-bombers.

Ethiopia’s army also outnumbers Eritrea’s 40,000-strong force by about three to one.

Ethiopia said its Friday bombing raid on the same airport was in retaliation for an Eritrean air attack on Mekele, about 300 miles north of Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital. At least 44 Ethiopian civilians were killed and 135 wounded in Mekele, according to government-run Radio Fana.

Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia in 1993, and Eritrean rebels were instrumental in helping the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front overthrow a 17-year military regime in July 1991.

But the two countries dispute at least six areas along their common border, which was drawn by Italy after it conquered Eritrea in 1885.

Relations between the onetime allies soured when Eritrea introduced its own currency in November in an effort to reassert its independence, triggering a trade war. Eritreans began streaming to the common border to take up the fight.