Ban on UN flights still in place

Eritrea's ban on UN helicopter flights in its airspace is still in place despite UN Security Council demands that the restriction be lifted, the UN said on Thursday. Eritrean and Ethiopian troop movements along their contested 1,000-kilometre border were also continuing, the UN Mission in Ethiopian and Eritrea (UNMEE) said in a statement released in the capitals of both countries, Addis Ababa and Asmara. Eritrea banned the flights on 5 October. Then, it prevented UN vehicles from conducting night patrols on its side of the frontier. In November, the Council passed a resolution warning of possible sanctions unless Eritrea lifted the restrictions and if both sides failed to reverse their troop build-up along the border. "Troop movements have been noticed on both the Ethiopian and Eritrean sides," UNMEE said in a statement. Last week, UNMEE said Ethiopia had moved a "significant number" of troops away from the border. UNMEE said it had submitted a report to headquarters giving details on whether both parties had complied with the Security Council resolution. UNMEE has 3,300 peacekeepers monitoring the border in a bid to prevent a fresh war. Tension has been mounting in recent weeks between the two countries over their unresolved border dispute. They fought a bloody border war from 1998 to 2000. Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia in 1993 after a 30-year guerrilla war, but their border was never demarcated and fighting broke out in 1998 in the border town of Badme. An international border arbitration commission set up under the 2000 peace agreement ruled that Badme belonged to Eritrea. The town, however, remains under Ethiopian administration, and Eritrea has held the international community responsible for Ethiopia's failure to respect the border ruling.