Ethiopians from US to bring half-a-million dollars for displaced
Fri 04 Sep 98 - 23:11 GMT
ADDIS ABABA, Sept 5 (AFP) - Some 60 Ethiopians living in the United States are due in Addis Ababa Sunday, brining half-a-million dollars to aid fellow-citizens displaced by their country's border conflict with Eritrea.The Ethiopian government said the visitors would go Monday to displaced persons' camps in northern Ethiopia, at Mekele and Adigrat. But a government source said trips to the fronts at Badme in the northwest and Zala Anbesa in the north had not been confirmed. The weekly newspaper Addis Tribune said the visitors would also meet government leaders. On Tuesday the government-owned weekly Ethiopian Herald reported that Ethiopians in the United States had already donated 115,000 dollars for the same purpose. Several thousand people have died since a brief, undeclared shooting war over the ill-defined border between Ethiopia and Eritrea, which began on May 6 and lasted until June 24. An estimated 184,00O Ethiopians and 100,000 Eritreans have been displaced by the fighting, while each country has accused the other of mistreating its resident nationals.
©AFP 1998
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