Kidnapped Britons Reported Safe in Eritrea

Five Britons kidnapped in a remote part of northern Ethiopia are "unharmed and safe" and are being held by separatist rebels across the border in Eritrea, a regional community leader said today.

The Britons, along with eight Ethiopians also seized a week ago in the Afar region, are being held by Afar separatists in the Eritrean settlement of Weima, according to a senior member of the Afar Pastoralists Development Association.

News about the captives had been passed on by nomadic herders using a traditional and reliable method of communication, Ismael Ali Gardo told the Reuters news agency.

"They are unharmed and safe and in Weima in Eritrea," said Mr Ismael, who returned from Afar to Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, today.

The captors were from the Afar Revolutionary Democratic Unity Front, Mr Ismael said, a group that emerged in the 1990s to seek more autonomy for the Afar region, which includes parts of Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti.

"They will not want to harm them. They are in Eritrea but the people who took them were from Afar," he added.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman in London said she had no other information. "We are looking into these reports at the moment. We can't confirm anything at present."

All five Britons - two women and three men, who cannot be named due to a government reporting restriction - are members of staff from the British embassy in Addis Ababa, relatives of diplomats, or officials from the Department for International Development.

The group had been travelling through Afar, popular with European adventure tourists, when they were taken by an armed gang from their compound in Hamedela, a small village just south of the Eritrean border, on March 1. Their local drivers, translators and guides were also kidnapped.

Earlier this week, the tour group's vehicles, including a Toyota Landcruiser and Land Rover Discovery, were discovered riddled with bullet holes and partly burned out. According to reports, the kidnappers sabotaged the empty vehicles to stop them being used in a chase.

On Tuesday, Ethiopian police and army officers leading the hunt for the captives said they appeared to have been taken into Eritrea, adding that Afar separatists were suspected of involvement.

An Ethiopian army commander, Gebremarian Hadush, said on Tuesday that the hostages were being held in Wiema, across the frontier, most likely by the separatists.

"They work together with the Eritreans. They must have done this together," he said.

Eritrea has already vehemently rejected accusations of its involvement in the kidnapping of the group, calling it "crazy".

Efforts to locate and free the Britons have been hampered by the lack of cooperation between Ethiopia and Eritrea, which fought a border war seven years ago and maintain a heavy military presence on their border.