The prospects for early peace in the Horn of Africa were slipping further away yesterday as fighting between Ethiopia and Eritrea continued on all major fronts.
Eritrea claimed it had recaptured the western town of Tesseney after a day-long battle which forced thousands more civilians to leave their homes.
The fighting came as the United Nations warned that the Horn of Africa region faced a disaster of "historic proportions". The UN said that up to 30 million people were at risk and appealed for an extra $378 million worth of emergency food, water and medical supplies.
Ethiopia and Eritrea appeared to be settling down to peace negotiations in Algeria last weekend when fighting reignited on the eastern Bure front and spread to other areas. Both sides accused the other of firing the first shot, with Eritrea claiming to have inflicted over 3,700 Ethiopian casualties in one day at Bure.
Ethiopia said it was responding to provocation. The battle came just two days after the Ethiopian Prime Minister, Mr Meles Zenawi, declared "the war is over".
Eritrea has accused landlocked Ethiopia of continuing the attacks in order to take Assab, the strategic Red Sea port 27 miles from the Bure front. Western diplomats said they understood that Ethiopian troops had advanced to within 10 miles of the town.
But Ethiopia has consistently denied that it wishes to capture any undisputed part of Eritrea, which was an Ethiopian province until it won independence in 1993.
The surge in fighting is bad news for the resumed peace talks in Algiers, which are sponsored by the Organisation of African Unity, the United Nations and the European Union. After more than a week of negotiations, the talks have failed to produce any concrete results, much less a ceasefire. The main sticking point has been the continuing Ethiopian presence on undisputed Eritrean territory.
Meanwhile, Ethiopia appears determined to pursue its policy of "fighting while negotiating and negotiating by fighting" and to inflict maximum humiliation on the regime of the Eritrean President, Mr Isiais Afwerki.
But as negotiations stall the war continues to exact a heavy humanitarian toll in Eritrea. The UN estimates that as many as 750,000 people out of a population of less than four million have been forced to flee their homes.
More than 50,000 refugees have streamed into neighbouring Sudan, while in the east of the country camps for displaced people have sprung up around the capital, Asmara.