UN close to setting up African peace mission

The United Nations is close to completing the deployment of more than 4,000 peacekeepers and support staff to monitor a ceasefire between Ethiopia and Eritrea.

The troops, which have come from 22 countries ranging from Argentina to Benin, have been arriving in region on an almost daily basis in recent weeks.

They are being deployed to monitor a ceasefire between the Horn of Africa neighbours after the end of their two-year war as well as the demarcation of their disputed 620-mile border.

The peacekeeping force is also supposed to oversee the redeployment of Ethiopian troops from Eritrean territory.

The fighting ended in June when the nations signed a cessation of hostilities treaty and agreed to the deployment of a UN Force.

Under the terms of the June agreement, the peacekeepers will be deployed in a 15-mile buffer zone in the area of the disputed border, most of it inside Eritrea.

The conflict cost the two impoverished nations, both plagued by drought, tens of thousands of lives and millions of pounds.