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The United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) has almost completed its withdrawal from the Horn of Africa region, with the last group of blue helmets having returned to their home country.

Recalling its prior condemnation of Eritrea's hindrances, the Security Council said the country's ongoing obstruction of the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) has dealt a blow to the blue helmets' mandate.

Ethiopia and Eritrea are primarily responsible for settling their border dispute and must follow up on the commitments they made in an accord in 2000, the top United Nations peacekeeping official stressed today.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has outlined four options for the future of the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE), including the possibility of axing the mission, because of restrictions imposed by Eritrea on its side of the disputed border.

The Security Council has called for Eritrea’s full cooperation in the temporary relocation of the personnel and equipment of the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE).

More than 700 peacekeepers have been temporarily relocated to their home countries from Eritrea, the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) reported.

Eritrea's restrictions on the activities of the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) breach the fundamental principles of peacekeeping and raise serious implications for the safety and security of blue helmets deployed around the world, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a report made public today.

The first group of United Nations peacekeepers left Eritrea today, travelling by plane out of the capital, Asmara, as part of the temporary relocation of the mission personnel after the force’s operations were paralyzed when the Horn of Africa country cut off fuel supplies.

After more than a week of repeated blockages by Eritrean forces, United Nations peacekeepers in the Horn of Africa country have finally completed regrouping to the capital, Asmara, in preparation for their planned temporary relocation across the border to Ethiopia.

Eritrea's latest obstruction of the efforts by the United Nations peacekeeping mission to temporarily relocate across the border in Ethiopia have resulted in more than 100 blue helmets being stranded inside the Temporary Security Zone (TSZ) between the two Horn of Africa nations.