BANDITRY IN ERITREA

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 70, 4 January 1950, Page 3

BANDITRY IN ERITREA

, MORE BRITISH TROOPS SENT (Rec. 9.45 a.m.) LONDON, Jan. 3. Britain is reinforcing her troops in the former Italian East-African colony of Eritrea by up to a battalion to improve her security arrangements against banditry, a Foreign Office spokesman said to-day. Agreeing that tension in Eritrea had decreased recently the spokesman said that Britain had to take these measures as a precaution. Britain occupied Eritrea pending a final decision by the United Nations Commission. “More British troops are being moved into Eritrea, which shows signs ol‘ developing into another Malaya because of a sudden increase in armed banditry,” says the Asmara correspondent of the “Daily Mail.” “The campaign against the bandits, the native Shiftas, is at present being carried on by a battalion of the Royal Berkshiros and one company of South Wales Borderers. Three companies of Borderers now in Khartoum are preparing to move. “The Shiftas have existed for centuries and as they are so useful for defending villages against cattle raids and adding to herds by their own raids they arq vested by the .local population with a kind of Robin Hood glamour. Recently, however, their activities have assumed a dangerous political tinge, and it is strongly suspected that this is being fostered from outside.

“Violence and arson against Italians and Italian property are becoming their main purpose, rather than robbery.”