Eritrea ‘blocking UN food supplies’
Peacekeepers trapped near Ethiopian border with only a few days of emergency rations.
Published On 15 Feb 2008
“An emergency troop contributors’ meeting is being called in the next few hours,” Okabe said.
Ricardo Alberto Arias of Panama, the current UN Security Council president, said the body would discuss the issue later on Friday.
Cross-border war
About 1,700 UN peacekeepers deployed to the country in 2000, at the end of a two-year war between Ethiopia and Eritrea that killed an estimated 70,000 people.
The peacekeepers have been stationed in a 25km buffer zone inside Eritrea, which has said it no longer wants UN troops in the country.
The two countries insist they will not start another war but both have moved tens of thousands of troops to the border because of a dispute over their 1,000km border.
UN officials have said their peacekeepers were reluctant to leave because they feared it could spark a new conflict.
Source: News Agencies