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Annan warns of another war between Ethiopia and Eritrea

Xan Rice, east Africa correspondent
Tuesday October 31, 2006

Guardian Unlimited
The UN secretary-general, Kofi Annan, has warned that the war between Ethiopia and Eritrea, which claimed 70,000 lives between 1998 and 2000, could soon reignite unless the two countries are persuaded to talk.

"classic example of the tragedy" of Africa

Describing the impasse as a "classic example of the tragedy" of Africa, Mr Annan said the UN had been unable to persuade the neighbours to cooperate and called for more world attention on the region. Tensions in the Horn of Africa have risen sharply in recent weeks with accusations that Eritrea has sent troops into the border buffer zone, and the two countries have taken active positions on opposite sides in a looming conflict in Somalia.

"We need to handle it [the situation] very carefully before it leads to another explosion," Mr Annan said in a speech at Georgetown University in the US last night.

The war originally erupted over a border dispute. After signing a ceasefire in 2000, both countries agreed to abide by the decision of an independent panel on the location of their mutual border. Thousands of UN troops were sent to patrol the frontier until demarcation occurred.

But Ethiopia's prime minister, Meles Zenawi, has refused to accept the panel's decision. The president of Eritrea, Isaias Afewerki, who assisted Mr Meles in toppling the Marxist dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam, maintains there is no ground for negotiation. He has accused the international community, and the US in particular, of siding with Ethiopia.

In a sign of its frustration last December, Eritrea placed severe limitations on the 3,800-strong UN peacekeeping mission. Since then, both countries have maintained tens of thousands of troops either side of the border.

Last week Mr Annan urged Eritrea to recall 1,500 troops and 14 tanks that recently entered the frontier buffer zone in defiance of the peace deal. Eritrea refused, saying the soldiers were there to help improve the local infrastructure.

Mr Afewerki has also been accused of sending arms and troops to assist the Islamists in Somalia, who are vying for power with the fragile, secular government. A leaked UN report suggested there were 2,000 Eritreans on the Islamists' side, although this has been strongly denied by Eritrea and has not been independently verified.

Eritrea has little reason to side with the Islamists other than sharing a disdain for Ethiopia. Mr Afewerki's government has a record of religious intolerance.

The Somali government enjoys close ties with Mr Meles, who does not want an Islamic state as a neighbour. In a Reuters interview last week, Mr Meles said his country was "technically" at war with the Islamists. He admitted sending troops to Somalia, but said they were military trainers numbering in the hundreds rather than the 6,000 to 8,000 mentioned in the UN report.