Eritrea submits crucial mine information

Eritrea has submitted detailed minefield information to the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE). The UNMEE Force Commander Major-General Patrick Cammaert said that the Mission “welcomes this important development, which is so critical for the purposes of peacekeeping and for humanitarian objectives.” The data covered significant frontlines, and included details of anti-tank and anti-personnel minefields laid by the engineering corps of the Eritrean Defence Forces (EDF), an UNMEE statement on 20 March said.

Last week, the Ethiopian government released the results of some of the areas surveyed by HALO Trust, the non-governmental organisation commissioned by the UN’s Mine Action Service. The Ethiopian government told UNMEE that it did not keep records of where landmines were laid. The government said that Ethiopian Armed Forces do not record their mine-laying activities, said UNMEE MACC on 10 March. The Ethiopian government further stated that no records were kept about where or how many landmines were recently lifted by Ethiopian Armed Forces.

The UNMEE statement released on 20 March reiterated that both parties had agreed to provide information on known and suspected minefields. It said both the June Agreement on the Cessation of Hostilities and Security Council resolutions 1312 and 1320 called on the armed forces of the two parties to play a crucial role in mine clearance, which was essential to UNMEE’s ability to deploy its peacekeepers. Mine information was also crucial for humanitarian relief efforts, so that the return of an estimated 750,000 people displaced by fighting could be ensured.