UN completes downsizing of Ethiopia-Eritrea peacekeeping mission

ASMARA, Feb 3 (AFP) — The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) this week finished downsizing its troop contingent in the region, officials said on Thursday.

Brigadier-General Abraham Wambugo said the force now numbered 3,365 troops, after 556 officers left in a scaling down process which started in December.

Last year, the UN Security Council extended the Horn of Africa force’s mandate but called for the reduction of its troops citing budgetary constrains.

UNMEE troops, deployed in the wake of a 1998-2000 war fought over the border, are mostly stationed in the buffer corridor that hugs the length of the 1,000-kilometre (600-mile) border between the two states.

In 2000, the two parties signed a peace accord under which they promised to respect a ruling on the path of the frontier which was decided by an independent commission in 2002.

Addis Ababa subsequently rejected the commission’s decision, a position it maintained until November, when it said it had accepted the “principle” of the boundary commission’s ruling but wanted “adjustments.”

Eritrea has said the Ethiopian position contains nothing new and border tensions flared once again in December, after Asmara accused Ethiopian troops of invading its territory.