Ethiopia demanded on Wednesday that Eritrea free eight Ethiopians being held by kidnappers, saying they were victims of Eritrean ”terrorism”.
Five Europeans were freed from the kidnapped group on Tuesday in Eritrea after a 12-day ordeal. The victims were seized in remote northern Ethiopia in a case which has stoked tensions between the Horn of Africa rivals.
”There is no doubt the abduction was masterminded and executed by the Eritrean government,” Ethiopia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
”It is evident the Eritrean regime not only supports and propounds terrorism, but it is also directly involved in active terrorism.”
There was no immediate response from Eritrea, which has accused Addis Ababa of ”manipulating” the kidnap saga.
The two foes routinely trade rhetoric, spurred by bitterness over a 1998 to 2000 border war that killed 70 000. They recently locked horns over support for opposing sides in Somalia’s war.
In a joint statement issued in Ethiopia on Wednesday, the five Europeans said they had been well treated, but that they feared for the safety of the Ethiopians remaining in captivity.
”We are very worried the Ethiopians who were accompanying us are still being held. We would not want anything to be said that might inadvertently jeopardise their safe release,” they said.
Three British men, one Italian-British woman, and one French woman were on a tour of Ethiopia’s barren, desert Afar region, when they were seized in the night by an armed band.
Although the exact circumstances of their capture and release were still not clear, suspicion for the kidnapping has fallen on the ethnic separatist rebel group the Afar Revolutionary Democratic Unity Front (Arduf).
Eritrea blamed the Arduf for the abduction in a statement on Tuesday night. The group seeks greater autonomy for the ethnic Afar homeland straddling Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti.
The fate of the eight local hostages could turn into another flashpoint in Addis Ababa and Asmara’s fractious relations.
Eritrea called the Arduf kidnappers ”an opposition force” fighting the Ethiopian government’s ”policy of ethnic discrimination and marginalisation”.
In its statement on Wednesday, Addis Ababa accused Asmara of undermining regional and international security, and of plotting to deploy ”al-Qaeda-trained” extremists defeated in Somalia.
”It is clear the Eritrean regime is bent on re-organising the remnants of the Islamic Courts in order to send them on other terrorist missions,” Ethiopia said. – Reuters 2007