SECRETARY-GENERAL CALLS ON ETHIOPIA AND ERITREA TO CEASE HOSTILITIES IMMEDIATELY
Press Release
SG/SM/6892
AFR/131
SECRETARY-GENERAL CALLS ON ETHIOPIA AND ERITREA TO CEASE HOSTILITIES IMMEDIATELY
19990210 The following statement was issued on Saturday, 6 February, by the Spokesman for Secretary-General Kofi Annan:The Secretary-General has seen reports of serious fighting between Ethiopia and Eritrea.
He is especially concerned that hostilities on this scale should have broken out while international peace efforts, including by his own envoy Mohamed Sahnoun, were continuing.
He is distressed that these two countries, which have so much to gain from working together toward economic prosperity in the Horn of Africa, should instead be locked in battle over their border dispute.
Regardless of who initiated the current fighting, he calls on both parties to cease hostilities immediately so as to give a diplomatic solution a chance. The alternative, continued fighting, is completely unacceptable to the international community.
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