New Land Access Route Between Ethiopia and Eritrea OpensAn additional land access route linking Ethiopia and Eritrea has been opened in the western front, an official from the Ethiopian Ministry of Defence said on Tuesday.Head of Foreign Relations and Peacekeeping Department in the ministry Getachew Teferra said that the access route along the Humera-Omhajer crossing was opened in accordance with an agreement, which was reached in Nairobi, Kenya on December 2 at the first meeting of the Military Coordination Commission of United Nations Mission for Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE). The opening of the latest access route will facilitate logistical support to the United Nations military observers and peacekeepers stationed in the area. It will also provide access for the observers to effectively monitor the peace along the border of the two Horn of African countries in that quarter, he added. Gethachew also added that 1,955 UN peacekeepers have arrived in Eritrea, saying another contingent of the mission, consisting 122 peacekeepers, are already in their mission area in Adigrat, the border town serving as the UNMEE headquarters on the Ethiopian side. The peacekeeping soldiers in Ethiopia and Eritrea represent half of the 4200-strong U.N. peacekeeping force which is expected to be stationed along the border of the two countries. Four land access routes linking Ethiopia and Eritrea are currently available for the U.N. peacekeeping forces after the two governments signed a comprehensive peace agreement in Algiers, Algeria on December 12, following a two-year border conflict between them. |
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