"No military build-up" in security zone - UN

The United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) said on Wednesday that it had found no Eritrean military build-up in the Temporary Security Zone (TSZ). The TSZ is a 25-km strip of land on the border separating the armies of the two countries.

Ethiopian Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin, in a speech to the General Assembly on 16 November, accused Eritrea of assembling close to 30,000 troops in the TSZ, and also accused UNMEE of engaging in a policy of appeasement toward Eritrea.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, UNMEE said that in response to Ethiopian allegations of an Eritrean military build-up in the TSZ it undertook "immediate investigations, including ground and air reconnaissance patrols in all three sectors of the TSZ and has found no indication of an Eritrean military build-up".

Regarding recent unsubstantiated press reports alleging that Eritrean forces had invaded and controlled pockets of Ethiopian territory in the western sector, the statement noted that "UNMEE's installations and patrols in the area report no unusual activity". Inasmuch as such allegations of major troop build-ups and accusations of appeasement escalated the rhetoric and did not help the cause of peace, "UNMEE urges restraint on both parties".

The statement also called on Eritrea to grant freedom of movement to UNMEE peacekeeping forces in the area adjacent to the northern border of the TSZ to enable them "to monitor the redeployed armed forces of Eritrea".

The UN Security Council in a press statement on 16 November expressed its full support for and confidence in UNMEE and "urged the concerned parties to contribute to the further implementation of the Algiers Agreements in a practical and constructive manner, and to exercise restraint in their public statements".