U.S. to support peaceful solution to Eritrea-Ethiopia border row

Oct 6, 2005 (LONDON) — The United States government has said it would support any diplomatic effort to stop the border dispute between Ethiopia and Eritrea becoming another foolish bloodshed war, BBC’s Focus on Africa reports.

The BBC quoted the US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs John Ndaye Frazer as saying that it would work to ensure that the peace accord between the countries signed in Algiers five years ago was fully implemented.

Eritrea regularly blames the US, as guarantor of the Algiers Peace Agreement, for not putting enough pressure on Ethiopia to accept the EEBC (Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission) ruling on border delimitation.

In a tough statement approved by all 15 UN Security council members and read at a formal meeting, the council called on both countries “to show maximum restraint and to refrain from any threat of use of force against each other.”

Under a December 2000 peace deal ending their two-year border war signed in Algiers, Ethiopia and Eritrea agreed to accept the conclusions of an independent boundary commission on where the border should lie. But

The commission issued its findings in April 2002 and Eritrea fully accepted them. But the process of marking out the new boundary on the ground broke down after Ethiopia objected that the flashpoint western town of Badme had been awarded to Eritrea. The border war, which killed more than 70,000 people, began when Ethiopia accused Eritrea of invading Badme.

(ST/ENA)