Horn border demarcation still has “not moved an inch”: UN

ASMARA, Sept 23 (AFP) — The crucial process of demarcating the border between former warring neighbours Eritrea and Ethiopia remains stalled, the head of the UN mission to the two countries (UNMEE) said Thursday.

“Despite the peacekeeping, we haven’t moved an inch in the demarcation of the border,” Legwaila Joseph Legwaila told a news conference in Asmara.

“Yet, the situation is stable enough for a demarcation to be made,” he said, lamenting that there was “stability but no progress” in the demarcation process.

“It is not up to UNMEE to make things move forward, this task belongs to the EEBC,” he stressed, referring to the international commission tasked with defining then actually demarcating the border.

Last week, the Eritrean foreign ministry criticised the September 14 UN resolution tat placed “on an equal footing” Ethiopia’s 2003 rejection of the EEBC ruling and Eritrea’s refusal to meet the UN’s appointed trouble-shooter for the region, Lloyd Axworthy.

“That is Eritrea’s interpretation, it is not the interpretation made by the UN’s Security Council. They are independent problems,” Legwaila said.

After a two-year border war, the Horn of Africa neighbours signed the Algiers peace accord in 2000, under which both parties undertook to abide by the EEBC’s ruling.