UN demands Eritrea pullback from Djibouti border.

This conflict no doubt is a minor irritant to the US and in this case France both of whom use the tiny country as a giant military base.
This is from antiwar.com.


UN demands Eritrea pullback from Dijbouti border
UN demands that Eritrea pull back troops from Djibouti border, near Red Sea shipping lanes
EDITH M. LEDERERAP News
Jan 14, 2009 16:43 EST
The U.N. Security Council on Wednesday unanimously demanded that Eritrea quickly pull its troops back from the Djibouti border and acknowledge the dispute with its Horn of Africa neighbor in an important area overlooking critical Red Sea shipping lanes.

In June, the Security Council condemned Eritrea for launching an attack against the tiny port nation of Djibouti, a key U.S. ally in the war on terrorism, which the U.S. said left 44 Djiboutian soldiers dead and many more missing.
The council had called for a cease-fire and urged the two countries to withdraw their forces from the border. Djibouti did, but Eritrea did not.
The council's resolution Wednesday expressed "deep concern" that Eritrea has not withdrawn its forces and has refused to engage in dialogue with Djibouti or accept the offers of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the African Union and others to help resolve the dispute.
The council demanded that Eritrea "comply immediately" with its order to pull back its troops and start talking to resolve the conflict. It gave Eritrea five weeks to take action.
Uncertainty over the Djibouti-Eritrea border also led to hostilities twice in the 1990s. Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia in 1993 after a 30-year guerrilla war, and their border is also in dispute.
In October, Djibouti's President Ismail Omar Guelleh warned the council that Eritrea's occupation of Djibouti's territory could lead to war again. He urged the council "to do everything possible" to persuade Eritrea to leave the territory it has occupied since March.
Eritrea had accused the United States of instigating the conflict.
More than 1,200 U.S troops are stationed in Djibouti, which hosts the base for an anti-terrorism task force in the Horn of Africa. France, which sponsored Wednesday's resolution, also has a base in Djibouti, its former colony.
In a letter to the council on Monday, Eritrea's U.N. Ambassador Araya Desta called the accusations against his country "unfounded."
"Eritrea has not occupied any land that belongs to Djibouti and it cannot accept a resolution that demands the `withdrawal of its forces' from its own territory," Desta said.