West Asia- Commitment to Disunity

last winter the Ethiopians have been withdrawing from the positions which they had gained in 1978, when with massive Soviet amis supplies and aided by Soviet military advisers they had forced the Eritreans to fall back. However, the tide of war began to turn again about a year ago and in December last year Russian ships had to evacuate defeated Ethiopian soldiers through one of the Red Sea ports, It is now clear that 40,000 regular Ethiopian troops and 20,000 reserves backed by MiG 21s which daily bomb Eritrean bases and the presence of high-ranking Russian military advisers have failed to break the popular, although militarily weaker, EPLF. There have been reports of use of cluster and naplam bombs on civilian and military targets in Eritrea by the Ethiopian army. Journalists visiting Eritrea have also suggested the strong possibility of use of toxic gas in Eritrea.