By Louis Charbonneau
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The U.N. Security Council is considering stepping up the pressure on Eritrea to avoid a renewal of fighting in the Horn of Africa between Asmara and its neighbor Djibouti, diplomats said on Friday.
Djibouti accused neighboring Eritrea of moving troops across the border in June, triggering several days of fighting that killed a dozen Djiboutian troops and wounded dozens. Eritrea denies making any incursions.
Djibouti, a key U.S. and French ally, also accuses Eritrea of seizing what it says is its territory along the Red Sea.
The president of Djibouti, Ismail Omar Guelleh, told the 15-nation council on Thursday that there could be war if it did not get involved and help resolve its dispute with Eritrea.
Inaction by the council “would not only encourage but would actually reward the attitude of Eritrea,” he said. “This gives my country only one option — the option of war.”
Last month the U.N. Security Council rebuked Eritrea for refusing to cooperate with a U.N. investigation of the June clashes with Djibouti.
Eritrea’s U.N. Ambassador Araya Desta repeated his country’s denials of making any incursion in June and accused Djibouti of launching an unprovoked attacked on Eritrea.
Several diplomats said the council should ask U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to immediately send a high-level envoy to mediate in the crisis, as recommended in a report on the U.N. probe of the June clashes.
The council would most likely make this request in a strongly worded statement aimed at ratcheting up the pressure on Eritrea to accept international mediation to resolve the crisis, diplomats said.
If Eritrea refuses to accept mediation and conflict breaks out again in the Horn of Africa, then the council could consider imposing sanctions against Asmara, they said.
Djibouti hosts French and U.S. military bases and is the main route to the sea for Eritrea’s arch foe and Washington’s top regional ally, Ethiopia.
The United Nations withdrew a peacekeeping force from the volatile Eritrean-Ethiopian border earlier this year after Asmara cut off fuel supplies to the U.N. troops and personnel. The force had been in place since 2000 after a two-year war between the the two countries that killed some 70,000 people.
5 thoughts on “U.N. council considers action in Eritrea-Djibouti dispute”
The question is:
How can the UNSC request Eritrea Visa for “Fact finding” mission, when it has already labeled Eritrea as being the agressor? There is definetely something wrong with this picture. But again, anything is a fair game when the actors are the powers of the day!
I think UN has reached the point that is no longer even worth the paper that is written on.This rubber-stamp organization became part of the world problems and the time has reached for this organization either need to be reformed or dissolved for good.
This US and French manufactured conflict with Djibouti won’t fly, what I don’t understand is the threat of sanctions by the US against Eritrea, are you kidding? Eritrea has been under US sanctions since 1997 and it didn’t matter at all, they tried all they could to stop the Eritrean diaspora who invest in their families and country relentlessly for years and it only made Eritreans in the diasopora more determined to help their families and country, they closed Eritrean consulate in Oakland just for that purpose but that made Eritreans in the west more determined to help their nation. What these neo-colonialist don’t understand is that Eritrea didn’t need them to get its indpendence which was much harder to achieve while they fully supported successive Ethiopian regimes, now an indpendent Eritrea is even more powerful with the capacity to face neo-colonialists with no fear unlike other African countries.
Regimes like Woyanne, the little puppet in Djibouti, Kenya and Uganda can’t stand up their masters because those regimes owe their existence to the neo-colonial powers, on the other hand the Eritrean government came to power and owes its existence to the Eritrean people, that’s why neo-colonial powers can’t affect its actions. The lesson for my Ethiopian brothers and sisters here is the only way to be free is by trusting your own population not some super power, that super power will put a regime in power but can’t sustain it for long because that regime has to govern the people on their free will. That’s why the Ethiopian people should unite and help their freedom fighters against the neo-colonialists and their puppet Woyanne.
I think and I believe Meles (the Woyanne) together with the Djibouti president and the UN are concoting a new scheme to start an aother round of war with Eritrea to destablize the already destablized region. For the woyanes its a bless in disguise to have another round of war with Eritrea to have a pre text to kick Isayas out and invade Eritrea. the questiion is, is it possible for the Woyanness to kick ass in Eritrea as they always boast? or is it time for their own demise with in Ethiopia?
I don’t think the present generation of Eritreans have the ball to raise arms like the Somalis to fight back the Woyane occupational army.
The Woyannes have a plan to capture or kill Isayas and live Eritrea in the hands of Eritrean opposition who do not have a concreate plan with the future of Eritrea. This is an interesting time in history to wait and see the outcome of all this hoopla. It looks like the end of the era of Issayas and Meles is coming, if not both of them, one of them forsure will go by the end of the mess.
To Taye;
You sound like the losers who call themselves opposition and live under Melles protection in Mekelle, they always dream of coming to power in Eritrea with the help of Woyanne and their neo-colonial powers, that will always stay as a pipe dream that will never be realized.
What makes you think that the present Eritrean youth are not capable of defending their freedom? if you are not aware Woyanne with the help of their masters tried to destroy Eritrea militarily for three years between 1998 and 2000 and failed miserably, now Eritrea is much stronger economically and militarily. Contrary to your wish for the demise of Eritrean government the opposite is true. Unlike Somalia was in 2006 the Eritrean people are united with much stronger military might, if it was as easy as Woyanne and their masters think they wouldn’t wait until now. All the manouvering and puppeteering of Djibouti is to give Woyanne a break from certain military defeat in Somalia, as you know the only government that wholeheartedly supports the Somali opposition is Eritrea, that’s way the neo-colonialists are worried and are doing all they can to frighten Eritrea into submission, what they don’t understand is that the Eritrean government doesn’t get intimidated by any foreign powers because Eritrea doesn’t beg from westerners to stay afloat like Woyanne. So keep on dreaming Taye but your dreams will never materialize but will turn into a nightmare.