Zalambessa

Zalambessa was a village that was fortified by Italian colonial forces.

The fortifications were taken over by the Ethiopian military in 1952 when Eritrea was federated with Ethiopia. The older village (Tsorona) remained under Eritrean Administration and the exact border became an issue before and during the Eritrean-Ethiopian War (1998–2000).[1] After the war, the town was in ruins.[2]

In 2000, Eritrea and Ethiopia signed the Algiers Agreement (2000) which forwarded the border dispute to a Hague boundary commission. In the Agreement both parties agreed in advance to comply with the ruling of the Border Commission. In 2002, the commission ruling, reconfirmed and made more precise in their final ruling effective November 2007, placed Tsorona inside Eritrean territory, and Zalambessa inside Ethiopian territory.

According to the Eritrean Information Ministry, Ethiopian Forces crossed the border early on New Years Day 2010, and engaged in a fierce battle with Eritrean troops before quickly withdrawing back over the border, after having 10 soldiers killed and 2 taken prisoner. Ethiopian government spokesman Bereket Simon denied that any armed incursion had taken place.[3]

During the 2020-2021 Tigray War, a massacre was carried out in Zalambessa by the joint Ethiopian and Eritrean armies. On 18 December 2020, an EEPA report stated that four named priests and three civilians were killed by troops (reportedly ENDF and Eritrean Defence Forces, EDF) in Zalambessa.[4] Jan Nyssen stated that the EDF killed 59 civilians in their houses in Zalambessa on 18 December.[5] On 19 December 2020, a foreign diplomat stated that "thousands" of Eritrean soldiers were engaged in Tigray. Two diplomats stated that Eritrean troops entered Ethiopia through three northern border towns: Zalambessa, Rama and Badme.[6]