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UNITED NATIONS (AP) - An Eritrean ban on U.N. helicopter flights has crippled peacekeeping in the buffer zone with Ethiopia, cutting off food and medical supplies to troops stationed in remote areas that are riddled with land mines, a U.N. spokesman said Wednesday.
The ban, which began Wednesday morning, has halted de-mining work and curtailed reconnaissance along the tense border separating the Ethiopian and Eritrean armies, spokesman Farhan Haq said. The two nations fought a 2 1/2-year war that killed 70,000 people before it ended in December 2000.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged Eritrea to lift the ban, warning that the decision could only add to tensions between the two nations. There are some 3,500 peacekeepers and police monitoring the buffer zone along the border, and Annan said the ban violates their right to freedom of movement.
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