UN preparing demining support for border demarcation

The United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) has announced plans to provide demining support for the demarcation of the border between the countries. UNMEE's move is based on the expectation that the UN Security Council will soon formally mandate the Mission to provide such aid, UNMEE spokeswoman Diane Bailey told reporters on Friday in the Eritrean capital, Asmara. "By the end of this week, all three UNMEE MACC Boundary Commission personnel will have assumed duties," she said on Friday. The three lieutenant-colonels from Sweden, the Netherlands and Ukraine will respectively perform the functions of boundary commission project officer, military liaison officer in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, and field military liaison officer in Adigrat, northern Ethiopia. The Eritrean government issued a proclamation on 8 July establishing the Eritrean Demining Authority. On 30 July, the head of the Eritrean Commission for Coordination with the UN Peacekeeping Mission, Brig-Gen Abrahaley Kifle, spoke at a meeting of mine-action NGOs and UN personnel to explain the ramifications of the declaration. Further negotiations were continuing with the Eritrean authorities to ascertain the proclamation's long-term impact on humanitarian mine-action activities within Eritrea, Bailey said.