| | The conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea, that broke out on 6 May 1998 was formally ended on 12 December 2000, when both countries signed a framework peace agreement in the Algerian capital, Algiers. The agreement came as a huge relief to the people of both countries, who had paid such a high price for the war, which claimed some 100,000 lives and displaced more than 600,000 civilians (Ethiopia Humanitarian Update, 22 December 2000, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Ethiopia). The cost in financial terms has run into hundreds of millions of dollars, as both governments vied for military supremacy, buying the arms they needed from international dealers at vast expense. As both rank among the poorest countries in the world, it was a price that neither could afford. |
