Word: assab
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...nearly 800 U.S. forces based in the East African nation of Djibouti, across the Red Sea from Yemen, and a Marine Corps amphibious assault ship, the Belleau Wood, has been in the area since August. Sources tell TIME the U.S. is looking to use the port of Assab in Eritrea as a naval base to keep an eye on traffic between Yemen, Sudan and Somalia. At home, the CIA's Counter-Terrorism Center (CTC) now has a staff of 1,100 analysts and covert operatives, almost triple the number it had a year ago. Technologists are working on new gadgets...
Although the E.P.L.F. has promised to allow the rest of Ethiopia free access to the Eritrean port of Assab, which normally handles 70% of Ethiopia's trade, about the only thing now moving through it is food. A Shell Oil installation, which is under the front's control, is sending only 10% of the usual fuel supply to the rest of Ethiopia. Says a Western businessman at the port: "There is the definite feeling of a squeeze play here." Wary of the Eritreans, Ethiopian producers of coffee, the country's biggest export, are not sending their goods to Assab...
...country are especially high. So far, the tumult has brought them nothing but misery. Food deliveries to Ethiopia's 7 million drought victims have been disrupted, and in some cases stopped, by the fighting. Supply trucks were attacked and looted, and international relief workers fled. The fall of coastal Assab to Eritrean fighters two weeks ago temporarily closed the city's port on the Red Sea, one of the most important conduits...
Many non-Eritreans oppose the province's independence for economic as well as nationalistic reasons. Without Eritrea, with its long Red Sea coast, Ethiopia would be landlocked. International food aid, essential in combating famine when the rains fail, enters the country primarily through the Eritrean ports of Massawa and Assab. The Eritreans have pledged that they will permit goods to flow freely through their territory, but many Ethiopians wonder whether they can trust such promises from a group that has fought Addis Ababa for three decades...
...Relief workers are racing to distribute food. Rebel attacks and logistical problems have cost valuable time, however, and in the past few days the pace has quickened. Last week three transport planes left Europe for Ethiopia and are now airlifting food from Asmara, near the Red Sea port of Assab, to Mekele. The European Community, which organized the operation, eventually hopes to deploy ten planes. "The airlift is vital," says Priestley. "But 700,000 people in Tigre need food immediately, and the aircraft must be backed up by trucks. If we don't start widespread distribution, there will be famine...