This time, the enemy is not a conquering empire but a fledgling nation of three million people to Ethiopia's 60-million. And, in Badme at any rate, the Ethiopians are once again in control of the disputed village. Some sources say they have gone further, making a pre-emptive push deep into Eritrean territory. As we approach Badme village there is no sense that we are anywhere near a front line, despite most maps putting the settlement almost on the border. A vine, heavy with green squash, winds around the thatched roof of one house.
Soldiers loiter and smoke in the street, lounge in the shade of the low buildings.
A brown goat peers into an abandoned home. From the gloomy interior a white goat stares back. I pick up a corroding cartridge shell as a souvenir. Around the town, every clearing reveals a greasy tank, the muzzle of its gun wrapped in hessian. Water trucks rumble along the roads, slaking the thirst of an army in an area where the rivers flow for only a few months each year.