ADIGRAT, Ethiopia, June 8 (Reuters) - As the evening light faded, only the unusual number of people on the streets and the assault rifles slung over the shoulders of the men gave away that this north Ethiopian town was at war on Sunday.
The dusty main street was packed with evening strollers, chatting in groups of two and three. Children played with makeshift footballs bound up with string and donkeys wandered aimlessly, unperturbed as lorries clattered through town carrying supplies to the front.
Thousands of people have arrived over the past week since their home town Zalambessa, 25 km (15 miles) to the north, became the main battle front in the bloody month-long conflict with Eritrea.
Adigrat's tiny, brightly painted houses barely have room for guests, but the new arrivals were taken in unquestioningly by the locals.
``They are our family, now they are living with us,'' said one teenage boy.
These people of Ethiopia's northern province of Tigray are no strangers to war. The region's rebel army -- the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front (TPLF) -- was the driving force behind Ethiopia's long guerrilla struggle which finally ousted military dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam in 1991.
Seven short years of peace were shattered in early May when a long-running squabble with Eritrea over border territories turned violent, with each side accusing the other of invading.
On the 120 km (75 mile) road to Adigrat from the provincial capital Mekele, the scene of a brutal bombing raid on Friday which left nearly 50 civilians dead, there was evidence of a much-needed peace dividend in this desperately poor country.
Unlike most in the region, the road is tarred and three of the villages along the way boasted new primary schools.
But the abject poverty of the countryside, where child cattle herders roam the unyielding rocky landscape, showed that peacetime development still has a long way to go.
``This (conflict) is not new for us,'' said Hussan Shufa, a former senior fighter in the TPLF. ``But what makes it intolerable is that people had started to sense peace and a bright future.''
The TPLF veterans say that 95 percent of the 40,000 strong rebel army have been remobilised and are preparing to head for the front.
On the road from Mekele, a truck raced along crammed with about fifty militiamen, the soldiers singing and punching the air with their rifles.
In the little town of Tekle, some two hundred former fighters gathered in the main square to be issued with weapons and given orders before heading off the front.
The TPLF soldiers are preparing to fight their former brothers in arms from the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF) with whom they joined forces to execute the final downfall of the Dergue military regime.
Eritreans were rewarded for their efforts with independence following a referendum in 1993.
The Ethiopians say they are reluctant to take up arms against their old comrades but will not hesitate to defend their country.
``Of course they are our brothers,'' said Berihu Gebre Medhine, a forest engineer from Mekele. ``By blood we are related. We lived together for a long time.''
``But we are fighting the (Eritrean) government not the people. We will never give them a piece of land that is from our territory.''
Several people suggested that a deteriorating economic situation in Eritrea had encouraged the government there to trigger the conflict with its Horn of Africa neighbour.
``I have many friends in Asmara,'' said Berhanu Kebide, a graduate of the university in the Eritrean capital. ``The price of food is rising, so the government wants to explain it by saying there is a war.
``The Eritrean government doesn't represent its peoples' interests. The people of both countries want a peaceful life.''