Senior UN officials to assess border standoff

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

NAIROBI-- United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan will send two senior UN officials to Eritrea and Ethiopia to assess the volatile border standoff following a decision by the Eritrean government to expel personnel from the UN peacekeeping mission there.

A spokesman for the office of the Secretary-General in New York said on Thursday that Annan had asked the head of the UN peacekeeping department, Jean-Marie Guéhenno, and the UN military advisor, Gen Randir Kumar Mehta, to leave as soon as practicable for the Horn of Africa.

The UN has already informed Eritrean authorities that it would not comply with their demand that staff of the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) from the United States, Canada, Europe and Russia leave Eritrea within 10 days.

According to UNMEE, about 180 people would be affected by Eritrea's demand, including 91 military observers, about 10 UN volunteers and 70 international civilian staff.

UNMEE force commander Maj-Gen Rajender Singh said that personnel from 18 out of the 44 countries who have sent peacekeepers to the region have been asked to leave.