Fifteen foreigners, including 11 French nationals, two Britons
and an Italian, are believed to have been kidnapped in a remote and
inhospitable area of Ethiopia where separatist rebels operate.
"A kidnapping or kidnappings did take place," French Ambassador
Stephane Gompertz said.
Two groups one of 10 French tourists, the other comprising a
mixture of nationalities disappeared earlier in the week while
visiting the arid north-east Afar region considered one of the
world's most hostile terrains.
"It seems that the incident or incidents happened two days ago
in the evening. At the moment, we don't know which group may be
involved or why they have done this," Gompertz added.
Afar separatists started a low-level rebellion against the
government in the 1990s, calling for a separate Afar state on
territory straddling Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti.
Afar is one of Ethiopia's poorest regions, populated mostly by
roaming herders who scrape out a living with sheep and goats.
The second missing group of five people, thought to be touring
the Danakil Depression, included two Britons, one French national
and one Italian, according to expatriates. The last missing person
is also said to be British, but that could not be confirmed.
"We can confirm that a group of Western tourists is missing in
eastern Ethiopia including a number of British nationals with
connections to the British Council, Foreign Office and DFID," a
British Foreign Office spokeswoman said in London. DFID stands for
Britain's Department for International Development.
'Land of death'
One of the lowest and hottest places on earth, and a magnet to
adventurous travelers, the Danakil Depression is known for
volcanoes, ancient salt mines and unworldly, flat landscapes.
It was not known exactly where the first group of 10 French
tourists had been within the Afar region.
"Tourists have been kidnapped in the area before, but the last
time was before the Ethiopian-Eritrean war," said one foreigner
tracking the case, referring to a 1998-2000 border war between the
Horn of Africa neighbors.
In 1995, nine Italian tourists were captured by Afar tribesmen
in the desert, then released two weeks later.
Ethiopia's government said it was aware of this week's incident,
but could not confirm if it was a kidnapping.
French envoy Gompertz said his mission was trying to send
representatives to the largest nearby town of Mekele later on
Friday or Saturday. "We are hoping to see the hostages alive and
well as soon as possible," he said.
Britain's Foreign Office has a warning out on the Afar region,
advising against all travel within 20 kilometers of the Eritrean
border in the Tigray and Afar regions at any time, "which remain
predominantly military zones."
The Afar region was made famous in the writings of British
explorer Wilfred Thesiger who once described it as a "veritable
land of death" due to its hostile environment.
The area is also the location of some of the earliest human
remains, such as the famous 3-million-year-old fossilized specimen
"Lucy," discovered there in 1974.
Various small rebel groups operate around all Ethiopia's border
regions. Two aid workers for the International Committee of the Red
Cross (ICRC) an Irishman and an Ethiopian were briefly kidnapped in
the south-east Ogaden region last year.
(China Daily March 3, 2007)
