DJIBOUTI (AFP) - Skirmishes between Djibouti and Eritrea over the ownership of the strategic Ras Doumeira areas have halted, the Djiboutian military said Friday, as the French military announced surveillance along the tense frontier.
"Fighting stopped in the last 36 hours but Djiboutian armed forces are in place to defend their territory from enemy incursion," the Djibouti army said in a statement. 
:lol:
[First the da booty president said, the war staretd because Eritrea made an incursion to da booy territory, then he said, Eritreans opened fire to reclaim their deserters ]
Nine soldiers were killed, 10 seriously wounded and 98 others suffered minor injuries, it said, updating a previous toll of six dead. Asmara, which has rejected accusations of aggression, has not given any toll.
France is to deploy a combat unit and logistical team in Djibouti near the border area to carry out aerial surveillance and use its navy to monitor Eritrean forces, said the military source.
The UN Security Council on Thursday condemned Asmara for Tuesday's border raids against Djibouti, the first since the two countries deployed troops along their frontier.
Djibouti said the rival forces opened fire after some their number deserted and the Eritreans insisted that they be handed over.
The UN Security Council "condemns Eritrea's military action against Djibouti in Ras Doumeira and Doumeira Island," read a UN declaration, adopted unanimously.
Ras Doumeira, in northern Djibouti, is a strategic promontory overlooking the Red Sea.
The Council "calls upon the parties to commit to a ceasefire and urges both parties, in particular Eritrea, to show maximum restraint and withdraw forces to the status quo ante," the declaration said.
The African Union on Thursday said it had dispatched a mission to Djibouti where it held talks on June 5-9, but Eritrea was yet to accept the team.
In a statement, the AU's Peace and Security Council urged "the two countries to show utmost restraint, resort to dialogue to resolve any bilateral dispute, and give their full cooperation to all efforts."
Washington has accused Eritrea of spurning mediation efforts by the AU, the Arab League, Qatar, and France.
But Asmara dismissed the accusation as "baseless and mendacious", chiding US for meddling in the Horn region.
"Indeed, the sad and well-known fact is that US policy and meddling in our region ... is contributing to the proliferation and aggravation of crises.
"Consequently, the resolution of problems has become elusive and the stability of our region undermined," its foreign ministry said in a statement.
The US has more than 1,200 troops stationed in Djibouti, which hosts an anti-terrorism task force in the Horn of Africa. France has 2,850 troops stationed its former colony.
Leaders from east African Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) will discuss the crisis when they meet in Addis Ababa for a weekend summit, the Kenyan presidency said in a statement.
Eritrea suspended its membership in the Djibouti-based IGAD in April last year, undermining efforts to restore regional stability, 14 years after it joined the grouping. It accused IGAD of failing to end regional crises.
The two small nations on the western banks of the Red Sea fought for control of the area in 1996 and 1999. They have never held talks to resolve the dispute over Ras Doumeira.
On May 19, Eritrean President Issaias Afeworki described talk of a military standoff as "
a wild invention." Djibouti accused Eritrean forces of digging trenches on both sides of the border on April 16, infringing several hundred metres (yards) into Djibouti territory. The Eritrean government denied the accusation.
