British Embassy tourists in Ethiopia released

Published on Tuesday 13 March 2007 15:27

THE FIVE Western tourists kidnapped in Ethiopia nearly two weeks ago have been freed and are safe, Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett announced this afternoon.

Mrs Beckett said the five were found in the border country of Eritrea and are well. She said they were being cared for at the British embassy in Asmara, the Eritrean capital.

The five - three British men, a French woman and an Anglo-Italian woman - are all linked to the British Embassy in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. They were identified by the Foreign Office to be:

Peter Rudge, first secretary, British Embassy

Jonathan Ireland, administrative support, British Embassy

Malcolm Smart, Department for International Development

Laure Beaufils, Department for International Development

Rosanna Moore, wife of the head of the British Council

They were traveling in a small convoy that also carried eight Ethiopian translators, drivers and guides. The whereabouts of the Ethiopians was not immediately clear.

Mrs Beckett said: "We continue to be concerned about the well-being of the Ethiopians who were taken at the same time as the British group."

The group went missing on 1 March during a tourist trip to northern Ethiopia to visit geological sites in the remote - and dangerous - Afar region.

Two vehicles belonging to the group were later found abandoned in the north-eastern village of Hamedali. The vehicles were riddled with bullets, but still contained luggage and mobile phones.

Hopes for the release of the hostages were raised on the weekend. Ethiopia's prime minister, Meles Zenawi, said then that his officials had a "good idea" where the hostages were being held. He said the embassy staff had not been specifically targeted and suggested that their seizure might have been a "mistake" by their captors.

The village of Hamedali is a staging post for intrepid tourists willing to withstand temperatures of 50C (122F) to venture into the unique geological formations of the Danakil Depression, including the area's famous salt lakes. Visitors are warned to travel in convoy with armed guards because of rebels and bandits.

According to witnesses, 50 men - in the cover of darkness - burst into the village, some of them armed, and marched a group towards the country's border with Eritrea.

Regional officials and Afar locals had said the hostages were marched into neighbouring Eritrea - which Eritrea had first denied.

The Afar region bordering Eritrea and southern neighbour Djibouti has a history of kidnappings, ending in the release of captives.