afrol News, 28 December - A fire fight between Eritrean and Ethiopian forces between the countries borders has become a cause of concern to the United Nations.

The UN Mission for Ethiopia and Eritrea [UNMEE] said it has began an inquiry into fire shots and blasts close to Gerbera, South-East of the Eritrean capital Asmara. It has therefore asked the two sides to "show the maximum degree of self-control possible."

Asmara blamed Addis Ababa of attacking its forces as part of a provocation strategy against the dislocated troops along the disputed border areas. Both sides had fought over the ownership the disputed areas between the two countries.

In a statement, Asmara described the attacks as the only latest by Ethiopia, which is "still placing land mines on our territory, organizing incursions and burning down farm lands."

However, Addis Ababa also blamed Asmara for the recent attacks. Ethiopian Foreign Ministry said Eritrea's accusations were groundless and baseless.

“The incident probably resulted from the meeting of two monitoring missions, but allegations of an attack by Ethiopia have been fabricated,” Ethiopian Foreign Ministry said, expressing Addis Ababa's resolve to resume talks geared towards nailing the long running border dispute with Asmara once and for all.

Ethiopia and Eritrea signed a peace agreement in 2000, following a bitter two-year border war. The signing of an accord resulted to the creation of an international commission tasked with demarcating the border line between the two countries.

However, Ethiopia rejected the commission's report released in 2002, refusing to surrender the disputed town of Badame to Eritrea.

By staff writer

© afrol News

Related pages and feature

Current afrol News Top Stories