Five British citizens who were kidnapped in remote north-eastern Ethiopia have been spotted at a military camp across the border in Eritrea, a senior Ethiopian official said today. The claim could not be independently verified.

Britain was sending a 10-man crisis team to Ethiopia today after at least a dozen Western tourists were kidnapped in remote north-eastern Ethiopia, a barren expanse of volcanoes and ancient salt mines where bandits and rebels operate.

A NUMBER of European tourists have been kidnapped in the remote desert of northern Ethiopia.

Five Britons are missing after 10 French tourists were kidnapped in the remote desert of northern Ethiopia, it was reported today.

Ethiopian, American and European researchers have observed a fissure in a desert in the remote northeast of Ethiopia that could be the “birth of a new ocean basin”, scientists said.

Scientists led by Ethiopian researchers today said a fissure in a desert in the remote north-east could be the “birth of a new ocean basin”.