By Tomas A. Granados, Prensa Latina
United Nations : The United Nations is preparing the withdrawal of its peacekeeping mission from Eritrea, as local authorities have not shown signs to resume fuel supplies to the international troops.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon had set Wednesday as a deadline for Eritrean authorities to resume fuel supplies to the mission that has monitored the ceasefire between that country and Ethiopia over the past eight years.
According to UN spokesman Farhan Haq, the UN was awaiting a change in the situation on fuel supplies, which Eritrea suspended on December 1, 2007.
Ethiopia and Eritrea waged a border war from 1998 to 2000 that took a toll of 70,000 deaths.
The two neighboring countries in the volatile Horn of Africa signed an agreement in 2000, when Algeria mediated a ceasefire that has been monitored by the UNMEE on a Temporary Security Zone on the common border.
However, authorities in Asmara have imposed severe restrictions on the UNMEE since October 2005, including closing the country’s air space to UN helicopters and cutting off fuel supplies since December.
Those measures have been interpreted as Eritrea’s angry reaction to the UN’s abstention from taking strong actions to force Ethiopia to comply with a decision by an independent demarcation commission.
The commission was set up under the umbrella of the Algier Agreements in mid 2005, according to which the town of Badme would be on Eritrean territory, a decision that Ethiopia has refused to accept.
According to Farhan Haq, the UNMEE will run out of fuel in a few days. If that happens, the mission will be immobilized and will not be able to monitor the ceasefire on the border between the two countries.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Ban regretted that the Eritrean government has not responded despite his written petition to President Isaias Afwerki on January 21.