Ethiopian troops withdrawing

2005-12-23 21:39

Addis Ababa - The United Nations on Friday confirmed that Ethiopia is withdrawing troops from its increasingly tense border with Eritrea in compliance with UN security council demands made last month amid fears of a new war between the arch-rival Horn of Africa neighbours.

The UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) said its peacekeepers monitoring the frontier had observed Ethiopian soldiers being redeployed from the border area in accordance with an earlier pledge Addis Ababa gave to do so in accordance the November 23 security council resolution.

"The military situation ... remains tense and potentially volatile," it said in a statement released here.

"However, Ethiopian troops have started pulling back in keeping with UN security council Resolution 1640.

"The pullback is being monitored by UNMEE patrols."

The statement gave no indication of how many Ethiopian soldiers were being withdrawn, when the pullbacks had begun or how they affected the balance of military might on the border where diplomats believe there are at least 100 000 soldiers on either side.

Resolution 1640 threatened Ethiopia and Eritrea with sanctions if they did not withdraw troops deployed to the border since last December or if they returned to war and warned Eritrea specifically that it would draw punitive action if it does not lift restrictions it has imposed on UNMEE.

While noting Ethiopian compliance, UNMEE said Eritrea was still defying the security council's demand for the removal of the restrictions, including an October ban on helicopter flights and limits on ground patrols, that have severely hindered its operations.

"The ban imposed by the Eritrean Government on UNMEE helicopters is still in place," it said, adding that restrictions also remained on ground patrols in the central and western areas of a 25km de-militarised buffer zone that runs along the 1 000km border inside Eritrea.

In response to the UN demand, Eritrea expelled all of UNMEE's North American and European staff, drawing further condemnation and ratcheting up concerns about a resumption in the bloody 1998-2000 war the countries fought over the border.

Eritrea has warned repeatedly that new conflict is looming as Ethiopia refuses to accept a binding post-war border demarcation and has angrily accused world powers of ignoring Addis Ababa's non-compliance with the 2002 peace deal that ended the hostilities.

- AFP