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UN Officials to Monitor Redeployment of Ethiopian Troops
A group of senior officials of the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) are scheduled to monitor the redeployment of Ethiopian troops Monday from the Temporary Security Zone (TSZ).
The field operations have been organized following the recent agreement reached between Ethiopia and Eritrea towards the establishment of the TSZ and Eritrea would start to rearrange its troops on March 17, 2001 following the redeployment of Ethiopian troops, the UNMEE said in a press release.
Under the agreement, the border towns of Badme, Zalambessa and Bada are verified to have been under the Ethiopian administration prior to the onset of the border dispute. Eritrea agreed to the creation of the TSZ 25 kilometers deep inside its own territory.
About 4,200 UN troops will be deployed in the TSZ to monitor the border area while the armies of the two countries are separated and the border properly demarcated.
According to the UNMEE, the redeployment process between the two forces will help the establishment of the TSZ and the UNMEE deployment in the TSZ mainly consists of Canada, Denmark and the Netherlands.
Ethiopia and Eritrea had been engaged in a two-year war since May 1998 before the two countries signed a comprehensive agreement in Algiers, Algeria on December 12, 2000 under the auspices of the Organization of African Unity.
Tens of thousands of soldiers on both sides are believed to have died in the border war.
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