Eritrea Halts All UN Helicopter Flights Putting Peacekeepers at Risk

U.N peacekeeping operations along the border with Ethiopia have been put at risk after U.N. helicopters in Eritrea were grounded yesterday. According to Reuters, Eritrea had told the United Nations that the helicopter flights which re-supply peacekeepers, direct aerial reconnaissance and help evacuate the sick, had to be halted immediately.

|TOP|The report quoted chief U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric as saying: "We had no choice. We can't do that against their orders." Apparently, no reason was given for action, but U.N. officials suspect that Eritrea had objected to the reconnaissance flights.

U.N peacekeepers in the area may have to be removed if the ban on helicopters continues, as it is not possible to bring supplies through to them with the roads too difficult to get through, UN officials reported.

On Tuesday, the Security Council warned Ethiopia and Eritrea not to restart their two-year-old border war. Eritrea was told to reverse its decision and allow the U.N. helicopter flights.

"I hope the Eritrean government will reverse its decision to ground all the U.N. helicopters, placing the U.N. peacekeepers at risk," U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan told reporters on Wednesday.

"The government has a responsibility to support and ensure the protection of these peacekeepers and I hope that the message has got through and they will not move forward with the decision they have taken," Annan said, according to Reuters.

|QUOTE|Jean-Marie Guehenno, the head of U.N. peacekeeping, told reporters: "If we are not able to move around effectively with our helicopters, we will have much less visibility on what is going on on the ground, which can in turn create suspicions and create more instability."

There are 3,000 peacekeepers, organised in the U.N. Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE), which are mainly supplied through helicopters.

However, U.N. aircraft flying between the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa and the Eritrean capital of Asmara, via Nairobi, Kenya, will not be effected by the flight ban.

"We need to use this as a pivot point to find a way to end, to resolve the boundary dispute ... and move on rather than have an indefinite peacekeeping force," U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said on Tuesday.