US urges restraint to avert new Eritrea-Ethiopia war
WASHINGTON (AFP) — The United States on Friday urged Eritrea and Ethiopia to pull back troops from key border areas and use "maximum restraint" to avert a new war.
"We are concerned about the military build up and tension on the border between Eritrea and Ethiopia," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in a statement.
Tension has been growing between the two countries which have been at odds since a 1998-2000 bloody border conflict in which some 70,000 died, many in brutal First World War-style trench warfare.
"We call on the governments of Eritrea and Ethiopia to exercise maximum restraint and avoid any actions that might further heighten tension or reignite conflict," the spokesman warned.
"Both governments should respect their commitments in the 2000 Algiers Agreements," he said.
"We urge both governments to disengage militarily from the most critical locations along the border and to cooperate with the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea," the statement said.
"We urge both governments to engage directly to address issues dividing them and fully embrace the efforts of United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to resolve the boundary impasse and move toward normalized relations."
In a report on Wednesday, UN chief Ban Ki-moon expressed serious concern about the military buildup along the Eritrea-Ethiopia border and urged them to break the stalemate in efforts to demarcate the disputed frontier.
In recent weeks, Eritrea has repeatedly accused its bigger and more powerful neighbor of bracing for a new border war, a claim dismissed by Addis Ababa as a bid by Asmara to divert attention from its internal woes.
Both sides have been flexing muscles and exchanging increasingly bitter rhetoric ahead of the expected closure of the UN-appointed boundary commission later this month.
The disputed frontier is then to be fixed on maps, with the panel complaining that uncompromising stances on both sides have prevented it from physically demarcating the border on the ground.
