According to eyewitnesses contacted by Gedab News, the Eritrean Defense Forces (EDF) are using their flatbed trailers, locally known as beTah, to transport heavy weapons to Assab and the southern frontier.

Meanwhile, the EDF and the Eritrean Customs Office are on a collusion course: the army is transporting contraband goods and refusing examination of their trucks. They have apparently been loading their trucks with electronic and consumer goods and topping them with military hardware. When they are stopped by the customs officers at road blocks, they refuse inspection on the pretext that military goods are not to be examined.

In a related story, some Chinese-made pick up trucks which have been improvised in Eritrea (Asha Golgol) are being mounted with light weapons and heading towards the Southeast.   The final destination is reported to be Somalia.

Towards this end, Colonel Barya, a military official with close ties to President Isaias Afwerki, has assumed a new identity and is believed to be in Somalia.

Diplomatic Assignments

After 21 months without a Foreign Minister, the Eritrean regime named Mr. Osman Saleh Eritrea's foreign minister.

The post of Foreign Minister had been vacant since Mr. Ali Sayed passed away on August 28, 2005.

The incoming minister, who used to hold the minister post at the ministry of education, is a veteran combatant who joined the EPLF in the 1970s.

Further down the organizational chart, the following changes were also made, although not officially announced by the regime:

As reported by Gedab News on March 6, Mr. Ahferom Berhane has been named Eritrea's ambassador to Canada.  Ahferom seems to be the "last man standing" after several other candidates sought asylum in Canada.

Mr. Andeab Gebremeskel, a veteran of the Eritrean Liberation Front's (ELF) who was  one of its 41-member Revolutionary Council until he left it after the Falool incident of 1977, has been named Eritrea's ambassador to Australia. The government has had little success in winning over Eritreans in Australia where the majority are ardent members of the opposition to the PFDJ government.

Mr. Mohammed Ismail Mahmoud has been assigned as Eritrea's ambassador to the Saudi Arabia.

Mr. Alem Tsehaye, Eritrea's ambassador to China following the defection of Mr. Mohammed Nur (now a member of the opposition Eritrean Democratic Party), has been reassigned to India. The outgoing minister to India, Mr. Gabriel Fassil, has been named the governor general of the Bank of Eritrea replacing Mr. Tekie Beyene. The latter seems more comfortable dabbling in literature--he recently translated Sophie's World.

The Other Proxy War: Eritrea vs USA

For years, the Eritrean regime had argued that the border dispute is not between Eritrea and Ethiopia but between Ethiopia and the international community.  This was because Ethiopia was refusing to comply with the ruling of the Eritrea Ethiopia Boundary Commission (EEBC) and the Algiers Agreement had provided a role to the guarantors in the event that one party fails to comply.

The Eritrean regime had naively expected the guarantors to compel Ethiopia, via punitive measures if necessary, to abide by the EEBC ruling. When the guarantors failed to do so, Isaias Afwerki presented his cabinet a "white paper" re-aligning his foreign policy. According to the white paper, the border dispute is between Eritrea and the USA since, according to Isaias Afwerki, Ethiopia is incapable of making a single decision without American approval and its failure to comply with the border ruling must be at the direction of the US. In pursuit of this policy, Isaias Afwerki has decided to directly confront the US in Somalia and Sudan.

In Somalia, Isaias has effectively created a government-in-exile by bringing together politicians who have defected from the ruling Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of whom Mr. Sherif Hassen Sheikh Aden and Mr. Hussein Mohammed Farah Aideed as well as Sheik Sherif Sheik Ahmed, chairman of the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), are the most prominent. After the three issued a joint communiqué, Mr. Aideed told journalists that the Somali insurgency is only operating at 10% of its capacity, leaving some analyst an impression that the 90% is coming from Eritrea.

In Sudan, President Omar alBashir is under intense pressure from the West to give in to their demand and agree to place UN peacekeepers in Darfur. Isaias Afwerki has bolstered  Omar alBashir's stand to defy Western powers and insist on "Sudanese solutions for Sudanese problems"—a euphemism for denying the UN a foothold in Darfur.  In his recent visit to Khartoum, Isaias Afwerki and Omar Albeshir actually called for "coordinating their country's respective views in the region and the world."

Isaias's saber rattling and belligerence has increased his star power among populations generally hostile to the United States.  Aljazeera in particular has invited him to several interviews and has furnished him with the media reach and a world platform that he craves. However, it is unnerving many Eritrean officials.  

Meanwhile, there are unconfirmed reports that the embassies of Germany, Great Britain and the United States are planning to close their consulates and embassies in Asmara.