Lee Valley Athletics Track Occupation

Arrived at 8 pm to set up and tutor a two day Athletic's Coaching course only to find chairs, tents, and marquees on the outdoor track and bunting on the throwing cage. So no access to the track for any running, jumping or throwing activities - have to use the indoor facility.

Banners and signs around the outdoor area read "Annul the Unjust UN-Sanctions on Eritrea" and "No to Ethiopia's Occupation of Eritrean Territories"

So what is this weekend's outdoor gathering all about?

The Eritrean-Ethiopian War took place from May 1998 to June 2000 between Ethiopia and Eritrea, forming one of the conflicts in the Horn of Africa. Eritrea and Ethiopia spent hundreds of millions of dollars on the war and suffered tens of thousands of casualties as a direct consequence of the conflict which resulted in minor border changes.

According to a ruling by an international commission in The Hague, Eritrea broke international law and triggered the war by invading Ethiopia.

At the end of the war Ethiopia held all of the disputed territory and had advanced into Eritrea. After the war ended, the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission, a body founded by the UN, established that Badme, the disputed territory at the heart of the conflict, belongs to Eritrea. As of 2013, Ethiopia still occupies the territory.