March 5, 2006: No good news here. Ethiopia is still mired in ethnic and political disputes that cannot be settled peacefully. Neighboring Eritrea has become a police state, and is demanding that Ethiopia back off in a border dispute. Neither nation can afford another round of warfare over the disputed border town of Badme. But the governments in both countries have pledged their political futures to getting Badme. Someone is eventually going to lose.
March 3, 2006: An Indian Army soldier serving with the UN peacekeeping and monitoring mission along the Ethiopia-Eritrea border died while awaiting medical evacuation. It took much longer than necessary to evacuate the soldier because Eritrea still will not let UN helicopters fly in Eritrea's border area. The UN Security Council demanded that Eritrea lift the flight restrictions. The UN Boundary Commission will ask Ethiopia and Eritrea to attend a meeting in April to discuss the continuing dispute.
February 28, 2006: Eritrea said that it would not participate in any new discussions regarding its border dispute with Ethiopia. The Boundary Commission gave Eritrea the town of Badme. Ethiopia originally agreed to accept the Boundary Commission's decision as binding, Ethiopia now rejects that decision.
