Ethiopian army says kills two Eritrean troops – UN
ADDIS ABABA, Feb 17 (Reuters) – Ethiopia says it killed two Eritrean soldiers and captured four who crossed into its territory early this month, a U.N. peacekeeping force positioned between the former foes said on Thursday.
Tensions in the border region between the Horn of Africa neighbours remains high, fuelled in the past year by the failure to demarcate a new frontier to finalise a peace process agreed to end their 1998-2000 border war.
The United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) said it had been unable to establish whether the four captives, who said they were Eritreans, were members of the Eritrean armed forces as alleged by Ethiopia.
“On February 2, Ethiopian Armed Forces did inform UNMEE that they have killed two and captured four Eritrean soldiers in Manda, 20 km (12 miles) inside Ethiopian territory and outside the Temporary Security Zone (TSZ)” Gail Bindley-Taylor Sainte told a televised news conference beamed to Addis Ababa from the Eritrean capital Asmara.
Eritrea has issued a statement on its government Web site denying the group was part of its armed forces.
Sainte said UNMEE had been allowed to interview the captives but “as far as we are concerned, we were not able to establish whether the captives were from the Eritrean Defence Forces or members of a dissident group as Eritrea alleges, because they carried no ID except one who carried an Ethiopian ID”.
Sainte said the captives confirmed to UNMEE investigators that they were all Eritreans.
Eritrea insists Ethiopia fully accept a 2002 ruling on the border demarcation by an independent commission set up under a peace treaty signed in Algiers on December 12, 2000.
Ethiopia initially rejected the decision but in November accepted it in principle. It said it wanted a dialogue with Asmara on how to implement the ruling.
The European Union, a major donor to both Ethiopia and Eritrea, has recently expressed concern about a military build-up on both sides of the border, urging the neighbours to refrain from any action that could lead to hostilities.