At least three killed on tense Eritrean-Ethiopian border: UN
ASMARA, April 21 (AFP) — At least three people have been killed in shooting incidents this month along the tense Ethiopian-Eritrean border, prompting a UN investigation into the deaths, a United Nations official said Thursday.
The UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) said it had opened an investigation into two incidents on April 9 and April 11 in which Eritrea reported it had killed four armed Ethiopians and captured one who had illegally entered Eritrean territory.
Ethiopia has denied the incidents and UNMEE spokeswoman Gail Bindley Taylor Sainte told reporters here that UN peacekeepers had seen only three bodies and spoken to the captured man but was unable to say whether they were members of the Ethiopian army.
She said the incidents occurred in southwest Eritrea near Om Hajer, just 500 meters (yards) from the border in the UN-monitored Temporary Security Zone and were a concern that despite indications they may have been related to criminal, rather than military, activity.
“Preliminary reports indicate that these incidents could possibly be related to cattle rustling attempts,” said Sainte, adding that any incident on the border is “one that is of concern to UNMEE.”
“We are not everywhere,” she added. “It’s a big border.”
Some 3,000 UN peacekeepers patrol the security zone which is 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) wide and hugs the 1,000-kilometer border on the Eritrean side.
In 2000, Eritrea and Ethiopia ended a two-year border war by signing a peace accord under which they promised to respect a demarcation of the frontier to be decided by an independent commission in April 2002.
Ethiopia initially rejected the ruling but then in November said it accepted the commission’s verdict in principle but wanted “adjustments.”
The Eritrean government, meanwhile, insists it will only accept full implementation of the commission’s ruling.
Three years later, demarcation has still not begun, and tension are running high between the Horn of Africa neighbors, sparking increasing concern from the international community.
Last month, the UN envoy for Ethiopia and Eritrea warned that the world must “act fast” to defuse the growing tension or face the risk of a new border war.