Kidnapped Ethiopia Britons 'alive and well'
Updated on 09 March 2007
The five kidnapped tourists linked to the British embassy in Ethiopia are safe, reports say.
Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett has said that her department has had indications that five Britons kidnapped in Ethiopia last week are "alive and well" - though it's still not clear where they are.
One group says the captives are being held in the town of Weima, in Eritrea, by militia from a separatist group.
The group, which also includes eight Ethiopians, disappeared while travelling in the north of the country. Their bullet-ridden and burnt-out vehicles were later found at a remote village.
The Ethiopian foreign minister this morning confirmed reports that the group was safe and being held by Afar rebels in Eritrea.
But the Eritrean government is still denying that the tourists are in its country.
For one week there has been no reliable word about the fate of the five tourists in northern Ethiopia. Their tour vehicles were found four days ago - evidence they were ambushed in the middle of the night.
But now reports are emerging that the group are "alive" and "unharmed" in the hands of Afar separatist rebels. The news was passed onto an Afar development agency by nomadic herders in the border areas.
The group, touring the salt mines of the northern region, were kidnapped about 20 kilometres away from the border.
Now, according to the Afar Pastoralists Association, they are being held in the town of Weima in Eritrea by militia from a separatist group called the Afar Revolutionary Democratic Unity Front.
But this morning the Eritrean government has again denied that the tourists are being held captive in their country.
The group was made up of four British diplomats and a French woman who worked in the British embassy in Addis Ababa. This morning the foreign office said they couldn't confirm anything yet.
