ERITREA: Fears are growing that a smouldering dispute over a remote mountain village pinned between Ethiopia and Eritrea could re-ignite the bloody war that ended three years ago.
An argument over Badme, a one-street hamlet in a hot, barren border zone, set off the 1998 conflict that claimed at least 80,000 lives over two years of bitter trench warfare.
Both sides subsequently agreed to accept the findings of an international panel to determine the controversial border.
But since the Hague-based Boundary Commission announced last month that Badme belongs in Eritrea, its incensed neighbour has threatened to renege on the peace deal.
The border decision was "unacceptable", Ethiopia's Information Ministry said in a statement this week, and the commission's failure to correct its "mistake" was viewed with "grave concern".
In contrast Eritrean state media have carried regular reports boasting about its "victory" in Badme.
As tensions mount, observers on both sides of the line are worried the that stand-off could collapse the Algiers peace deal or, at worst, rekindle the flames of war.
"This is a very sensitive time," said a senior Western diplomat in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.
Some 220 Irish troops are station in the Eritrean capital, Asmara, as part of a 4,200-strong UN peacekeeping mission to the two countries until the dispute is resolved.
By now most of the 620-mile border has been decided, but Badme, a village of just 5,000 people, remains the powder-keg sticking point.
The Boundary Commission mysteriously failed to pinpoint Badme's location when it issued its findings one year ago; then "clarified" that, under a 1902 Italian colonial treaty, it belongs in Eritrea.
Now Ethiopian officials are issuing veiled threats of violence if physical demarcation of the new border goes ahead as planned by July.
"It is possible there will be trouble when they come to put the pillars in.
"We cannot imagine the consequences," explained the president of Tigray region, Mr Tsirgay Berhe.
Peace-plan sponsors are racking their brains for a way out of the impasse. But even the United Nations is running out of ideas.
"We are a bit lost," admitted an official in the Eritrean capital Asmara.
One possible solution under consideration in Asmara and Addis Ababa is to put Badme under international supervision while the remainder of the border is demarcated. But even the plan's architects admit it is a long shot.
"Personally I don't think it would work. But we don't have any better ideas," said the UN official.
Badme has crystallised rivalries between the leadership of the two neighbours, who once fought side by side to overthrow the communist dictator, Mengistu Haile Mariam, in 1991.
Neither can afford further confrontation.
Over 11 million Ethiopians and 1.4 million Eritreans, 40 per cent of the population, are at risk of starvation this year following a severe drought.
"We Can't Afford Another War" read the headline on a recent article in the Addis Tribune newspaper.
Many ordinary folk feel the same way. At Binbina, an Eritrean village packed with displaced families from the Badme area, elderly farmers lamented the war.
"We just pray to God that it will not come again," said 75-year-old Andom Mehanjel, who lost a son in the fighting and is now dependent on food aid from the World Food Programme.
But the Ethiopian Prime Minister, Mr Meles Zenawi, is under intense pressure to claim Badme. His army lost an estimated 60,000 troops in the war that ended three years ago..
And vociferous internal opponents accuse him of being "soft" on Eritrea partly, they claim, because his mother hails from across the border.