From: Biniam Haile \(SWE\) (eritrea.lave@comhem.se)
Date: Wed Oct 22 2008 - 15:02:57 EDT
Djibouti says Eritrea risking war
Thursday, 23 October 2008 19:09 UK
Djibouti's president has said his country will have to go to war with
Eritrea unless the UN acts to resolve growing tension over a border
dispute.
Djibouti has accused Eritrea of invading its territory.
The Eritrean ambassador to the UN denied that his country had taken any
land from Djibouti.
Both France and the US have troops in Djibouti, and its border with
Eritrea lies at a key strategic point at the mouth of the Red Sea.
Eritrea's ambassador instead accused Ethiopia of moving troops to the
border of the three countries.
Since Eritrea gained independence in 1993, the Horn of Africa country
has been involved in two serious conflicts over territory with its
neighbours.
Clashes between Eritrea and Djibouti earlier this year left nine
Djiboutian troops dead and 60 injured.
On Thursday, Djibouti's President Omah Guellah appealed to the UN
Security Council to help resolve the dispute.
"Continued inaction in whatever form not only will encourage but will
benefit Eritrea's attitude," he said.
"This would only give my country one option, the option of war."
In June the UN Security Council called on Eritrea and Djibouti to agree
to a ceasefire, stressing that Eritrea should pull its forces back, the
BBC's Laura Trevelyan reports from the United Nations.
France, the former colonial power in Djibouti, is working on presenting
a plan to the Security Council reiterating demands for Eritrea to
withdraw its forces, she says.
France also wants the two sides to talk to each other about their
disputed border.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7687503.stm
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