UN urges Djibouti and Eritrea to end border dispute

[Xaldoon]

DJIBOUTI CITY - The UN Security Council on Monday urged Djibouti and Eritrea to resolve their border dispute peacefully after tensions flared following the withdrawal of Qatari peacekeepers from a buffer zone.

Djibouti accused Eritrea of moving its forces into the buffer zone last week, a day after Qatar, a mediator in the border dispute that turned violent in 2010, announced the troop pullout.

After hearing a UN report, the Security Council called "on the parties to resolve their border dispute peacefully in a manner consistent with international law," said Bolivian Ambassador Sacha Llorenty, this month's council president.

The council "would welcome the consideration of future confidence-building measures," he told reporters after the closed-door meeting.

Council members welcomed a plan by the African Union to send a fact-finding mission to the disputed border region, Llorenty added.

The meeting on the border tensions was called by Ethiopia, which fought a war with Eritrea in the late 1990s.

The Qatari withdrawal comes as the Gulf emirate is locked in a bitter dispute with Saudi Arabia and its allies over alleged ties to Islamist extremists, a charge it denies.

Both Djibouti and Eritrea have good relations with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, and have taken their side in the Gulf row.

AFP