20100425
SABC

An explosion at a cafe in Ethiopia's Tigray region has killed five people and injured 20 others as the country prepares for its upcoming national elections.

"This is an attack by the Eritrean government to deliberately disrupt the upcoming elections," Micheal Abraha, Tigray's administrator, claimed in reference to the Saturday attack in the border region with neighboring Eritrea.

Tigray's regional president, Tsegay Berhe, also blamed the attack on Eritrean agents, as an attempt to disrupt the elections. However, he noted "Ethiopian elections won't be disrupted despite Eritrea's attempts to do so."

Relations between the two countries have soured due to a dispute over the frontier. Ethiopia and Eritrea fought a 1998-2000 war in which at least 70,000 people were killed.

This is while Ethiopia gears up for the May 23 national elections, in which more than 29 million people have registered to vote.

Opposition groups had claimed fraud in the country's 2005 general elections which led to clashes in Ethiopia that left some 200 people dead.

The Ethiopian government and the European Union have agreed to have EU observers monitor the upcoming national elections while Ethiopian Premier Meles Zenawi has promised free and fair elections.