ETHIOPIA:Fifteen foreigners, including 11 French nationals, two Britons and an Italian, are believed to have been kidnapped in a remote and inhospitable area of Ethiopia where separatist rebels operate.
"A kidnapping or kidnappings did take place," French ambassador Stephane Gompertz said yesterday.
Two groups - one of 10 French tourists, the other comprising a mixture of nationalities - disappeared earlier in the week while visiting the arid northeast Afar region, considered one of the world's most hostile terrains.
Afar separatists started a low-level rebellion against the government in the 1990s, calling for a separate Afar state on territory straddling Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti.
The second missing group of five people, thought to be touring the Danakil Depression, included two Britons, one French national and one Italian.
The fifth missing person is also said to be British, but that could not be confirmed.
"We can confirm that a group of western tourists is missing in eastern Ethiopia including a number of British nationals," a foreign office spokeswoman said in London yesterday.
- (Reuters)