UN mission says supply route to western Eritrea remains closed

ADDIS ABABA, Mar 10, 2004 (dpa) — The United Nations mission to Ethiopia and Eritrea said Wednesday that its main supply route to western Eritrea remained closed to all its vehicles.

The main supply routes from the Eritrean capital Asmara to Keren in the northwest and to Barentu in the west, have been closed to U.N. Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) vehicles since Saturday, UNMEE spokesman George Somerville said in Addis Ababa.

UNMEE head Legwaila Joseph Legwaila had protested to the Eritrean Commissioner for Coordination Brigadier-General Abrahaley Kifle over the restrictions, he said.

“Discussions are still going on with a view to restoring travel to UNMEE’s supply route from Asmara to Barentu in western Eritrea through Keren,” Somerville said.

The restrictions contravene the freedom of movement guaranteed under the Algiers Agreement and the Model Status of Force Agreement (SOFA) which it had signed with Eritrea, according to an UNMEE statement on Monday.

The Eritrean Commissioner for Coordination had informed UNMEE’s chief of the government’s decision, “for reasons that remain unclear to us,” the statement said.

UNMEE said its vehicles have been stopped by Eritrean Defence Forces (EDF) and diverted, doubling travel time and imposing “considerable wear and tear on our vehicle fleet”.

It pointed out that it that would be impossible to traverse the route during the rainy season.