Military leaders to meet in Nairobi

Military leaders from Ethiopia and Eritrea are to meet in Nairobi next week - the first armed forces summit for seven months, the UN said on Thursday.

The Military Coordination Commission (MCC) talks will take place in the Kenyan capital next Wednesday and are expected to address cattle rustling along the border, informed sources said.

Legwaila Joseph Legwaila, the head of the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) will attend the talks, along with the UN’s new force commander Major General Robert Gordon. It is also expected that Brigadier-General Yohannes Gebremeskel from Ethiopia and Eritrea’s Brigadier-General Abrahaley Kifle will meet together in the Kenyan capital.

MCC talks are used to thrash out details surrounding the peace process, including demarcation of the border. The last round of talks was held on 22 April.

UNMEE spokeswoman Gail Bindley-Taylor Sainte said that Maj-Gen Gordon would use the meetings to “get to know each other” and “restart” military talks.

“I have not been informed of the specifics of the meeting…but my sense of the meeting is that what will be discussed is all military matters that are usually discussed at MCC meetings," she told a press briefing.

“Since they haven’t had one for a long time I am sure they will use the opportunity to discuss as many issues on their agenda as possible.”

Sainte added that security at the talks was an issue in the wake of terrorist attacks in Kenya last week which claimed the lives of 16 people, including three suicide bombers.

She said that the force commander had spoken with his Eritrean and Ethiopian counterparts and that those talks would set the agenda for the MCC summit.

Both countries fought a bitter two-year border war that claimed tens of thousands of lives. They agreed to a peace deal in December 2000.