The war in the Horn of Africa

The Ethiopian break-through at the western end of its 600-mile (965-kilometer) border with Eritrea has scattered the retreating Eritrean forces, prompted an exodus of foreigners and forced the flight of at least a million Eritrean refugees. The blitzkrieg has ended the stalemate of two years of bloody trench warfare and decisively tipped the military balance. All talk of a ceasefire seems, for the moment, futile.

Disgracefully, personal pride and animosity have done most to fuel a war that is costing around $1 million a day and is crippling the future of the benighted Horn. It is Africa's enduring tragedy, played out on a bloody scale. Little wonder, therefore, that the outside world is exasperated with both combatants and unsympathetic to their pleas for food aid.

-- The Times, London