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Ethiopia hostages to return to UK

Ethiopia hostages to return to UK

ADDIS ABABA – Five Europeans freed 12 days after being kidnapped in remote northern Ethiopia were resting and receiving medical checks in neighbouring Eritrea yesterday before flying out to be reunited with their families.

“They are in good condition, pretty relieved it’s all over,” said a British diplomat in Ethiopia. The three British men, one Italian-British woman, and one French woman were on a sightseeing tour to the barren Afar region – one of the most inhospitable terrains on earth – when they were abducted 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, which has bitter ties with Ethiopia over their disputed border, 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.Michael Moore, husband of hostage Rosanna Moore, said he had spoken to his wife and was “very keen and anxious” to see her.”She sounded very upbeat and confident and delighted to be where she was.I think the whole group has worked well together and gelled to get through this,” Moore, head of the British Council in Addis Ababa, told Reuters.He declined to give any details he may have gleaned about his wife’s abduction.The five expatriates were expected to leave Asmara yesterday, but their destinations were unclear.Amid euphoria over the Europeans’ freedom, Ethiopia urged the world not to forget the fate of eight locals also taken hostage with them and urged their immediate release.”This story is not over.Eight Ethiopians are still being held hostage.We believe that they are in the hands of the Eritreans,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Ambassador Solomon Abebe said.The fate of the Ethiopians could turn into another flashpoint in Addis Ababa and Asmara’s tense relations since a 1998-2000 border war.Eritrea called the ARDUF kidnappers ‘an opposition force’ fighting the Ethiopian government’s ‘policy of ethnic discrimination and marginalisation’.The hostages were kidnapped in the desolate, salt-trading village of Hamad-Ile on a patch of desert near the Danakil Depression salt beds.The release follows a similar incident in the 1990s when Italian tourists were kidnapped for two weeks.Nampa-ReutersThe three British men, one Italian-British woman, and one French woman were on a sightseeing tour to the barren Afar region – one of the most inhospitable terrains on earth – when they were abducted 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, which has bitter ties with Ethiopia over their disputed border, 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.Michael Moore, husband of hostage Rosanna Moore, said he had spoken to his wife and was “very keen and anxious” to see her.”She sounded very upbeat and confident and delighted to be where she was.I think the whole group has worked well together and gelled to get through this,” Moore, head of the British Council in Addis Ababa, told Reuters.He declined to give any details he may have gleaned about his wife’s abduction.The five expatriates were expected to leave Asmara yesterday, but their destinations were unclear.Amid euphoria over the Europeans’ freedom, Ethiopia urged the world not to forget the fate of eight locals also taken hostage with them and urged their immediate release.”This story is not over.Eight Ethiopians are still being held hostage.We believe that they are in the hands of the Eritreans,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Ambassador Solomon Abebe said.The fate of the Ethiopians could turn into another flashpoint in Addis Ababa and Asmara’s tense relations since a 1998-2000 border war.Eritrea called the ARDUF kidnappers ‘an opposition force’ fighting the Ethiopian government’s ‘policy of ethnic discrimination and marginalisation’.The hostages were kidnapped in the desolate, salt-trading village of Hamad-Ile on a patch of desert near the Danakil Depression salt beds.The release follows a similar incident in the 1990s when Italian tourists were kidnapped for two weeks.Nampa-Reuters

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