Children are walking back from school, it is quiet and peaceful. Yet only a few kilometers to the north is the frontline border between Ethiopia and Eritrea.

Between 1998 and 2000 this region was devastated by a violent conflict between the two countries. At that time, the Irob people who inhabit these arid highlands were forced to flea the fighting, leaving their ancestral territory to ruin and destruction. Only in the past three years have they started resettling on their land.

The Irob are an ethnic group of 30,000 people. They have their own language and share a unique culture. Most are Christians – Ethiopian Orthodox or Catholics. They now fear a new war: with the local UN peace-keeping force withdrawing from the border region in July, tension is on the rise between Ethiopia and Eritrea.

Hagos Gidey, a local farmer, dreams aloud: “It would be good if this could be settled peacefully: that people from Ethiopia and people from Eritrea can come and go like they used to."

The Irob people are grateful to the current Ethiopian regime for granting them greater autonomy in their region. For  Zewde Yohannès, a farmer displaced during the war, things are clear: Eritrea has nothing to do here. “Ethiopia is a big country. I want to remain Ethiopian! I don’t want a war!” , he says.

Ethiopia officially accepted the new border decreed by the UN boundary commission in 2002. According to that ruling, the Irob country is part of Eritrea. But Ethiopia wants this demarcation to be renegotiated.

The Irob people want to live united, not torn apart between two hostile countries. They have been living here for the past 700 years and intend to stay here.