Posted on 05/24/2008 5:26:44 PM PDT by decimon
ON THE DJIBOUTIAN-ERITREAN BORDER The distance between the rival armies is shorter than the barrel of a gun. Hundreds of opposing troops are lined up on the border, staring each other down, from just inches away.
On one side are the Djiboutians, a relatively well-equipped African military with combat boots, CamelBak strap-on water bottles and the occasional buttery croissant in the field.
On the other side are skinny Eritrean soldiers, covered in dust and wearing plastic sandals, camped out in thatch-roofed huts that look like fortified tropical bungalows.
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No pictures, no pictures, one Eritrean soldier yelled. When asked what he and his men were doing here, he just shook his head, No English.
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Djibouti, a country of about 700,000 people, is backed up by France and the United States, both of which have big military bases here.
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(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Shake Djibouti.
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