Eritrea has ordered U.N. troops and civilians from Western countries to leave within 10 days, a move that will make the U.N.'s observation of the tense border with Ethiopia impossible, diplomats said Wednesday.
Tensions along the Ethiopia-Eritrea border have grown in recent weeks with military maneuvers on both sides of the unmarked 620-mile frontier between the Horn of Africa neighbors raising fears of a repeat of their 1998-2000 war.
Diplomats said they had received no explanation for Asmara's move but suggested it was a sign of its growing frustration with the United Nations over the world body's handling of the country's border dispute with Ethiopia.
"The Government of Eritrea has decided to ask UNMEE members from USA, Canada, Europe, including the Russian Federation, to leave the country within 10 days," one of the diplomats said, referring to the U.N. Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea.
UNMEE spokeswoman Gail Bindley-Taylor-Sainte confirmed the move but did not name the countries involved.
"UNMEE confirms that certain nationalities within the U.N. mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea have been asked to leave the mission area within 10 days," she told Reuters in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.
Restrictions since Oct. 5
Eritrean Information Minister Ali Abdu and Yemane Ghebremeskel, an adviser to President Isaias Afewerki, declined to comment.
Diplomats in Asmara said the latest order will affect about 90 out of 230 military observers, plus administrative and logistical staff based in the Eritrean capital.
Other countries that have contributed military observers to UNMEE include Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, Zambia, China and India.
Peacekeepers' movements have been restricted since Oct. 5 when Eritrea banned U.N. helicopter flights and other activities.
About 60 percent of peacekeepers withdrew, saying they were unable to do their work.
"With the helicopter ban which restricted the peacekeeping operations, this new measure makes the observation part impossible," the diplomat said.
Diplomats said the Eritrean official serving as liaison with UNMEE, Colonel Zecarias Ogbagaber, delivered a letter to the senior UNMEE official in Eritrea on Tuesday.
UNMEE's Deputy Head Joel Adechi then briefed the U.S. and European ambassadors.
United Nations to discuss move
The U.N. Security Council is due to meet on Wednesday to discuss the latest moves and a statement is expected later.
Eritrea was angered last month by a U.N. Security Council resolution that threatened it and Ethiopia with sanctions if they failed to withdraw their forces from the border.
The same resolution called on Eritrea to lift its flight ban and expressed "grave concern" that Ethiopia has failed to fully accept the ruling of an independent commission on the border. But it did not threaten Ethiopia with punishment for non-demarcation of the border.
Under a 2000 peace deal, both sides agreed to accept the commission's decision on the location of the frontier as final and binding. But Addis Ababa balked when the flashpoint town of Badme was awarded to Eritrea, and the peace process has been stalled ever since.
