First Eritrean prisoners repatriated

The first group of wounded Eritrean prisoners of war has left Ethiopia for home.

About one-hundred and ten prisoners were flown to the Eritrean capital, Asmara, by the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The same plane will take about eighty Ethiopian prisoners in the other direction and by the end of the day it's hoped that a total of about seven-hundred prisoners from both countries will have been repatriated.

The Red Cross registered two-thousand six-hundred Eritrean prisoners in Ethiopia and over one-thousand Ethiopians in Eritrea during the two year border war in which tens of thousands of people were killed.

It was brought to an end with a peace agreement brokered by the Organisation of African Unity earlier this month.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service