Eritrea running out of patience with Ethiopia over border row

ASMARA, Sept 30 (AFP) — The Eritrean government has said it is running out of patience in a long-running row with neighbouring Ethiopia about their shared border, according to an official website seen by AFP on Thursday.

The border row pushed the Horn of Africa states into a devastating war between 1998 and 2000 and subsequent internationally backed plans to deliver durable peace and normalise relations have stalled.

“Eritrean efforts shown to Ethiopia to ensure respect and implementation of the Ethiopia-Eritrea Boundary Commission (EEBC) ruling to secure peace with Ethiopia have been given enough time,” the Eritrean cabinet said in a statement posted on the information ministry’s website.

In line with peace accords signed in 2000, this commission delivered its verdict on the path of the disputed border in 2002, but last year Ethiopia formally rejected the decision, delaying demarcation indefinitely and bringing an already sluggish peace process to a complete halt.

Since then, Asmara has called on the international community to pressure Addis Ababa to abide by the legally binding ruling, and has refused to meet a UN envoy specifically tasked with finding a way out of the impasse.

The Eritrean government statement gave no hint of any implications of its position.

“Patience has a limit,” Foreign Minister Ali Said Abdella told the UN General Assembly earlier this week.