Missing tour group spotted in hands of kidnappers in Ethiopia

A European tour group that went missing last week is “safe and secure” but being held by unknown kidnappers near the disputed border of Ethiopia and Eritrea, Ethiopia’s foreign minister said today.

“Last evening I heard they are safe and secure,” Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin said, citing tribesman in the remote, hostile region who say they have seen the group.

“They are in good condition. We don’t even know yet who the kidnappers are.”

Seyoum said tribal elders had reported the group was in the Afar region, which straddles the border of Ethiopia and archrival Eritrea, and that they appeared to be well.

While the region’s ancient salt mines and volcanoes offer a spectacular, moonlike landscape for tourists, bandits operate there and tourists must have armed guides.

The group – five employees of the British Embassy in Addis Ababa or their relatives – were abducted along with 13 Ethiopian drivers or translators March 1.

Four are British citizens, including one of Italian origin; the other is French.

Five of the Ethiopians are believed to have escaped or been released.

“We have had indications that there are people who are saying the hostages are OK,” Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said in Brussels.

“Obviously the issue of where they are is still something that’s having to be looked at.”

The Italian Foreign Ministry said it had received information that the missing people were alive, although it had no direct proof.

The ministry said Italian authorities were working with British authorities to assess the credibility of various information about the hostages’ situation.

Ismail Ali Dero, general manager of the Afar Pastoralists Development Association, said he, too, had been told by his fellow tribesmen that the group was in good condition. He said they were in Eritrean territory.

Eritrea has denied having anything to do with the kidnapping.

“The Europeans and Ethiopians who were taken to Eritrean territory are unharmed,” Dero said.

Seyoum also said his country won’t use military force to try to secure the tour group’s release.

“Their security could be compromised if military options were to be utilised” in a rescue attempt, he said.

On Monday, investigators examined two embassy cars marked by bullet holes in Hamedali, which is the last staging post before the region’s famous salt lakes. An embassy official said nobody was believed to have been in the vehicles at the time they were shot up.

The attack did not appear to be a robbery; mobile phones and luggage were still in the cars.

Police in Afar say their investigations show the group was kidnapped by dozens of armed men and taken into Eritrea.

Relations between Ethiopia and Eritrea have been strained since Eritrea gained independence from the Addis Ababa government in 1993 following a 30-year guerrilla war.