ADDIS ABABA: Eritrea and Ethiopia accused each other of starting clashes on Sunday between their soldiers in a border region, highlighting persistent tension over a boundary dispute that triggered war in 1998-2000. Ethiopia said the situation was calm on Monday, after a resident on the Ethiopian side reported the sound of explosions all day on Sunday and lasting into the early morning of Monday. Eritrea, a Horn of Africa country that won independence from Ethiopia in 1991, fought border wars with its larger neighbour in 1998-2000 that killed about 70,000 people. Eritrea’s Information Ministry said in a statement late on Sunday night that the Ethiopian government had “unleashed an attack against Eritrea on the Tsorona Central Front.” Tsorona is a town south of the Eritrean capital Asmara and close to the frontier. The area saw intense fighting during the earlier border war. “The purpose and ramifications of this attack are not clear,” the Eritrean statement said.