The president of Ethiopia’s remote Afar region on Wednesday denied Eritrean accusations that local separatist rebels were responsible for abducting a British embassy group there for almost a fortnight.
”There are no rebel movements operating in the Afar region. Our soldiers monitor the area daily,” Ismail Ali Sero told Agence France-Presse by telephone.
”We only know that an armed group based in Eritrea kidnapped these tourists” and took them towards the frontier, he said, repeating an accusation he first made on March 3, which the neighbouring country has vehemently denied.
The group of five people was in Eritrea’s capital, Asmara, after their release on Tuesday following nearly two weeks in captivity.
Eight Ethiopians who were with them are still missing.
Ethiopia and Eritrea fought a bitter territorial war between 1998 and 2000 and are still deeply at odds over their border.
The Eritrean Information Ministry said on Tuesday that the group had been kidnapped by the Afar Revolutionary Democratic Unity Front (Arduf), which had made no ransom demand.
Arduf, created in 1993, opposes the division of the Afar people among Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti. It reached a peace deal in 2003 with Addis Ababa but a dissident wing of the group is still active.
Arduf claimed to have captured a group of Italian tourists in the same region in 1995, who were released two weeks after their abduction.
The five released captives — three men and two women, one with dual British-Italian nationality and one French national — are all linked to the British embassy in Addis Ababa.
They were abducted on March 1 in Afar territory with 13 Ethiopian drivers and guides. Five of the Ethiopians were released three days later. — Sapa-AFP