The United Nations mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (Unmee), monitoring the disputed border between the two countries, said on Wednesday there has been a ”drastic reduction” in clashes between the two sides over the past two weeks.
Border clashes had increased over the past three months as both countries stepped up movement of troops along their respective sides of the disputed border.
However, both sides agreed to meet UN Security Council demands to relocate troops or face sanctions. Ethiopia complied accordingly three weeks ago, moving its troops away from the border area, while Eritrea drastically reduced the movement of its troops within the buffer zone, Unmee officer-in-charge Azouz Ennifar said on Wednesday.
Eritrea, however, continues to maintain restrictions on UN helicopter flights and on movement of UN vehicles at night, despite repeated demands by the Security Council to lift the restrictions.
The Security Council said on Monday it would freeze decision-making on the matter for 30 days while a high-level United States delegation visits Ethiopia and Eritrea to attempt to break the deadlock over the disputed border.
The US attempt to get Ethiopia to accept the border with Eritrea drawn by an international commission offers a chance for peace, but carries the risk of failure, a senior UN official said on Wednesday.
Under a December 2000 peace agreement following a two-and-a-half-year border war, Ethiopia and Eritrea agreed to abide by an independent commission’s ruling on the position of the disputed 1 000km border. But Ethiopia has refused to implement the April 2002 ruling, which awarded the key town of Badme to Eritrea.
Eritrea has angrily pressed the international community to force Ethiopia to relent.
”I believe it [the US mission] is a chance for peace and I expect the parties to contribute to that,” said Azouz Ennifar, deputy head of the UN mission for the two countries. ”There is no doubt in this very difficult situation any initiative has risks.”
”There are risks that it doesn’t work and there are risks that it works,” Ennifar told journalists through a satellite video link from the Eritrean capital, Asmara.
”Everybody was expecting a political move for quite a while that would try to break this crisis situation and this is why it was highly welcomed,” Ennifar said. ”Every effort is highly welcomed and everything should be directed to breaking this political stalemate to try to put the peace process that was agreed five years ago back on track.” — Sapa-dpa, Sapa-AP