United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Eritrea
This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Eritrea

President Isaias Afewerki Cabinet National Assembly Political parties PFDJ Elections Judiciary High Court Regional Courts Community Courts Special Court Regions (Zobas) Regional Administrators Regional Assemblies Human rights Foreign relations Algiers Agreement Foreign aid UNMEE Diplomatic Missions
Other countries • Politics Portal view • talk • edit

UN soldiers in Eritrea. Photo by Dawit Rezenè

The United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) was originally formed in 2000 to monitor a ceasefire in the border war that began in 1998 between Ethiopia and Eritrea. Since that time the mission has remained in place in order to formally mark the border between the two countries. The border is to follow the route as declared by an international commission in The Hague but Ethiopia has refused to accept the ruling, despite originally agreeing to binding arbitration.

The mission has it's headquarters in Asmara,(Eritrea) and Addis abeba,(Ethiopia) and remains in place, with 3,300 peacekeepers, whilst tensions between the two countries remain high. About 1,500 of these peacekeepers are from the Indian Army. In addition, there are about 200 civilians, in addition to about 75 U.N. volunteers working with UNMEE. Their area of responsibility is a buffer zone 25 kilometers (15 miles) wide on the Eritrean side of the Ethiopian-Eritrean border.

The border between Ethiopia and Eritrea remains closed and thousands of people live in refugee camps while perhaps a million people remain displaced. In October 2005, the Eritrean government restricted UNMEE helicopter flights along the border and demanded the reduction of the UNMEE force by 300 staffers. Eritrea is also restricting movement of ground patrols inside bufferzone. A United Nations Security Council resolution in November 2005 threatened sanctions to both parties if there were no resolution.