Ethiopians bury their dead

Jane Standley reports from the northern Ethiopian town of Adigrat, where people are preparing to bury their dead after an Eritrean bombing raid:

There's an air of shock and disbelief in the small dusty town of Adigrat as the people here prepare to bury their dead.

Many are afraid that there will be another raid on the town and some say they want to pack up what possessions they have and leave.

But the closest major town, Mekele, has also been bombed by Eritrean war-planes and no-one feels safe. The front-line is close by and more than 100 military casualties from the increasingly bitter border dispute are being treated in Adigrat's small hospital.

Now civilians from the bombing raid lie in beds along the corridors and on mattresses on the floor. The youngest is only eighteen months old.

Yesterday's attack by the Eritreans seems to have been aimed primarily at economic targets. Bombs fell close to a much-prized pharmaceutical factory which has only just opened in this desperately poor region, and a grain store for the most needy was hit. It burned late into the night as people tried to salvage what they could.

This attack will clearly raise the level of confrontation. It is the first air-raid since the aerial bombardments a week ago by both Ethiopia and Eritrea, themselves an escalation of what had been clashes between troops along a remote, disputed border.

Mediation efforts to halt the conflict are quietly continuing, but the mood here among civilian victims is moving from sadness and bewilderment to anger and revenge.