Rafael Darío Ramirez Carreño, Chair of the Somalia-Eritrea Sanctions Committee, told the Security Council on Friday that the Monitoring Group had not found evidence that the Government of Eritrea is supporting Al-Shabaab. But at the same time, said that Eritrea did support other groups inside Ethiopia.
“The Government of Eritrea had shown little willingness to cooperate with the Monitoring Group, which cited a lack of progress in solving the border dispute between Eritrea and Djibouti. If the participation of Eritreans in the Yemen crisis was confirmed, that could constitute a violation of resolution 1907 (2009),” Ramirez said.
Eritrea, on the other hand, says it is subjected to unfair and illegitimate sanctions by the Security Council on the basis of fabricated allegations which are proven to be non-existent and therefore calls for reforms at the United Nations.
Moreover, it believes that the Security Council continues to neglect the illegal occupation of our sovereign territory by Ethiopia.
“The occupation of Eritrean territory is done in violation of international law and several Security Council resolutions and the final and binding Delimitation and Demarcation Decisions by the Eritrea Ethiopia Boundary Commission (EEBC) which the UN is the guarantor for its implementation”, Eritrea.s Ambassador to the United Nations, Girma Asmerom, said in a statement.
According to the UN, the Secretary-General has appointed eight experts to the Monitoring Group, which was working to extend its contact network in the Horn of Africa.
During the debate, speakers expressed regret that the Monitoring Group had not been allowed into Eritrea for three years, and urged that country to enhance communication with the Committee under relevant Council resolutions, the UN said.
The United States representative commented “Little has changed,” emphasizing that obstructing the Monitoring Group’s work was at odds with Eritrea’s calls for the lifting of sanctions imposed on it.
The United Kingdom’s representative said that, perhaps with a new Monitoring Group now in place, cooperation would follow.
The Russian Federation’s representative described attempts to increase pressure on the Asmara Government as counterproductive, while his counterpart from Senegal requested that the Monitoring Group provide additional information on the charge that Eritrean soldiers were in Yemen on behalf of the Arab coalition.
The UN also said that Ramirez announced that he had received an invitation to visit Eritrea from the country’s President, in his capacity as Chair of the Sanctions Committee. The visit would be organized in the coming month.
