The key prize in what was supposed to be the mother of all battles between Ethiopia and Eritrea doesn’t look like the sort of place men would die for. Zalambessa is a corpse of a town, its ro… ...

Scenes from around this Horn of Africa capital give ample evidence why two of the poorest nations in the world cannot afford to go to war.On street corners, beggars queue up at car windows with ...

An Eritrean poses near a tank abandoned during the 1998-2000 border war with Ethiopia in Shambuko Town, Eritrea, December 23, 2005. The two countries have been in a "Cold War" scenario since the ...

Eritrean and Ethiopian troops pummeled each other with shells and rockets along their disputed border Tuesday, while diplomats and hundreds of frightened foreigners fled the Eritrean capital.

The first phase of the war lasted until mid-June 1998. Both sides used aircraft types available before the war. MiG-21 and MG-23BN by Ethiopia and Aermacchi MB-339 by Eritrea.

The neighbours then fought a 1998-2000 border war. They remained formally at war until 2018, when Abiy and Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki agreed to normalise ties.

But clashes broke out in 1998 along the border over ownership of the disputed town of Badme, leading to a two-year war in which an estimated 80,000 people were killed.