Four Ethiopian troops killed near Eritrean border: UN

Nov 29, 2005 (ASMARA) — Four Ethiopian soldiers were killed when a newly laid land mine exploded in Ethiopian territory along the increasingly tense border with Eritrea, the UN peacekeepers said Tuesday.

The UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) said the four died last week when the military truck in which they were riding detonated the mine on the Ethiopian side of a de-militarized buffer zone between the rival nations.

“The Ethiopian military truck struck and detonated a mine with its left front wheel,” UNMEE said in a report about the November 22 incident. “There were a total of seven passengers travelling on the truck.

“Four passengers were killed and three persons were injured,” it said in the report which was sent to AFP on Tuesday.

It said the incident took place inside Ethiopia on a well-travelled road between the towns of Sembel and Badme inside a 15-kilometer (nine-mile) so-called “adjacent area” patrolled by UNMEE that abuts the border.

Neither Ethiopian nor Eritrean troops are allowed inside “adjacent areas” that lie on both sides of the 25-kilometer (15-mile) wide Temporary Security Zone hugging the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) border inside Eritrea.

UNMEE said the explosion was caused by a recently planted land mine but did not say who might have laid the device.

The explosion occurred amid soaring tensions between Addis Ababa and Asmara and troop movements on both sides that have sparked fears the two nations may be on the verge of new hostilities.

Badme, about 150 kilometers (95 miles) southwest of Asmara, is a remote dusty town that was the flashpoint for the 1998-2000 war the Horn of Africa neighbors fought that claimed some 80,000 lives.

Eritrea has warned new conflict is looming because Ethiopia refuses to accept a binding 2002 border demarcation emanating from a peace deal that awarded Badme to Asmara.

Last week, the UN Security Council threatened to slap sanctions on both nations if they return to war and warned Eritrea of separate punitive measures unless it lifts restrictions imposed UN peacekeepers monitoring the border.

The council also demanded both sides reduce their troop deployments and that Ethiopia accept the border ruling.

UNMEE has described the situation along the border for the last month as “tense and potentially volatile” as the two countries trade allegations that the other is violating the peace pact.

(AFP/ST)