War Between Ethiopians and Eritreans

4834 Words10 Pages

War Between Ethiopians and Eritreans

On May 6th 1998, Ethiopian and Eritrean patrols engaged in an all out battle. While it may not have been the “shot heard round the world”, it certainly was a shot the disrupted a previously peaceful vicinity. It was also a shot that completely changed the Horn of Africa, and permanently disrupted Ethiopian economy. It was also a shot that interrupted the young life of Benyam Berhe. Benyam Berhe experienced this war in a way completely unique from anyone else in the United States, because he lived it. America hasn’t seen foreign troops on its soil since the war of 1812. Americans cannot possibly relate to hearing mortar fire from our very own homes.

When diplomacy fails to achieve what the politicians want, war is how they get what they want. This has been proven time and time again as the most expensive political jockeying invented. Politicians have been using their citizens to fight their wars of ideals for the past century. This war, the war between Eritrea and Ethiopia, was unique because in this war people died for land. Since the medieval ages so few societies have fought wars over land, that the idea seems absurd. Men died for a piece of soil, called the Badime region, (Ito).

In analyzing the grand effect of this war, the individual is often overlooked. Benyam Berhe is from Addis Abbas, Ethiopia. He and I have had multiple conversations pertaining to the war between Ethiopia and Eritrea. Benyam maintained a largely apathetic view to most of the war in spite of the fact that the front line was less than 1000 kilometers from his porch. Though he was only 15 when it all started, he did watch avidly all the news channels as the bombs started to fall.

Accordin...

... middle of paper ...

...y World: Africa Eyewitness: Reporting the war in the Horn. Mar. 21, 1999 < http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/288239.stm >.

Jes’man, Czes£aw, The Ethiopian Paradox (Oxford University Press), 1963.

Jones, A.H.M. and Monroe, Elizabeth, A History of Ethiopia Oxford at the Clarendon Press, 1966.

Muluneh, Wuhib Ethiopia - Eritrea Border Conflict: The Crux of the Issue, accessed on 11/28/2003, < http://www.ethioembassy.org.uk/articles/articles/focus%20electronic-99/Wuhib%20M-3.htm >

Ploughshares Armed Conflict Reports 2003. Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, Conrad Grebel College Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. 2003©

< http://www.ploughshares.ca/CONTENT/ACR/ACR00/ACR00-EthErit.html >

Tesfai, Alemseged, The Cause of the Eritrean-Ethiopian Border Conflict, accessed on 11/26/2003, < http://www.dehai.org/conflict/analysis/alemsghed1.html >

Open Document