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The UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) is to appoint a new force commander for its peacekeeping mission along the border of the two countries, UN sources told IRIN on Thursday.
The current commander, Major-General Patrick Cammaert, is leaving the region as his contract has come to an end, the sources said.
Cammaert, who has served with the mission for two years, was the military head of the 4,200-strong peacekeeping force. They arrived in the region in September 2000 to monitor a ceasefire between the two countries following a bitter war triggered by a border dispute in 1998.
The Ethiopian government has accused Cammaert of bias towards Eritrea, but senior UNMEE sources denied the UN had bowed to pressure from Ethiopia to remove him.
“His contract has come to an end,” a UN source said. “If we had bowed down he would not have served out his contract, would he?”
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
