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Hunt on for kidnappers of Europeans, Ethiopians
2007-03-03
British officials arrived in Ethiopia on Saturday to step up diplomatic efforts to free at least five Europeans and 13 Ethiopians feared kidnapped in the remote northeast of Ethiopia. Conflicting reports on Friday said that up to 20 foreigners had been abducted. The Foreign Office confirmed Saturday that a team of British officials had arrived in Addis Ababa while the BBC reported that around 10 were in the party including an expert hostage negotiator. But the Foreign Office would only say: "They have arrived. We won't comment on the composition of the team." British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett on Friday confirmed that five "members of staff, or relatives of members of staff, at our embassy in Addis Ababa" were missing in the desert region which borders southern Eritrea. The Italian foreign ministry said Saturday that one of those kidnapped had dual British-Italian nationality. The abductions of the Europeans and their Ethiopian staff happened on Thursday night at a camp in the inhospitable Afar region, where separatist rebels are known to operate, Ethiopia's state news agency ENA quoted the police as saying Friday. There were no details early Saturday as to the identity of the abductors. An Ethiopian government source said the Ethiopian army was carrying out search efforts in a hostile, desert terrain. "The army is dealing with the search. Troops have been deployed in the region," the source said, requesting anonymity. "Due to the heat and the difficult terrain, it's difficult to use helicopters in the region," he added, giving no further details. Meanwhile, a French embassy official arrived in the city of Mekele, which has the closest airport to the area where the Westerners went missing, diplomatic sources said. The 13 Ethiopians missing were working as drivers and interpreters for the tourists. ENA news agency reported that a group of Europeans living in Ethiopia left on February 23 on a tourist trip to the remote Denkel valley. Ethiopia requires tourists to the area to travel with police escorts due to regular bandit attacks. The British Foreign Office on Friday amended its travel advice for Britons in or intending to head to the remote area of Ethiopia. "Pending further clarification, we advise against all travel to the Afar and Danakil regions of northeastern Ethiopia," it said. The government in Addis Ababa said Friday it would do everything possible to ensure the safety of the missing foreigners. "We heard about an abduction and we are trying to confirm their whereabouts," Berekhat Simon, an advisor to Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, told AFP by telephone. "We'll try our best to ensure their safety." The Europeans were among between a dozen and 20 Western tourists -- belonging to separate tour groups -- who were reported Friday as missing or feared kidnapped. An Ethiopian travel agent said a group of his clients -- five British nationals and eight Ethiopians -- had been kidnapped by gunmen. The agent, who asked to remain anonymous, said that they had been taken towards the border with Eritrea. Another operator, Origins Ethiopia, said one 10-member group had since been in contact and was safe and well. However, that operator said Saturday that seven French tourists, reported missing by Paris-based French volcano trekking specialist Aventure et Volcans, were still unaccounted for. The Afar desert is one of the hottest and lowest places in the world, divided between Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti. Afar separatists started a low-level rebellion in the early 1990s against the division of the Afar people between the region's three countries. Known for its salt mines, volcanos and fauna, the area is also the location of some of the earliest human remains. The famous 3.2-million-year-old fossil "Lucy" was discovered there in 1974.
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