Freed Ethiopia Hostages Return to Uk

Five Europeans kidnapped by a rebel group in northern Ethiopia and held for almost two weeks were today flying to the UK, British officials said.

The group - three British men, a woman with joint British-Italian nationality and a Frenchwoman - had left Ethiopia and were travelling to the UK, a British embassy official in Addis Ababa said.

The five, all of whom worked for or had links with the embassy, were kidnapped on March 1 while on an adventure tour of the geographically unique but inhospitable Afar region, which straddles Ethiopia's border with Eritrea.

They were freed on Tuesday and released a joint statement yesterday saying their captors, believed to be an Afar region separatist group, had not harmed them.

"We were treated well by our captors - physically we are all in good condition but obviously very tired," said the statement, released on their behalf by the embassy.

"We are immensely happy that we have been released and would like to thank all those who have been involved in our release. We look forward to being reunited with our family and friends."

The husband of one of the hostages, Michael Moore, who works for the British Council, said news of their release had brought an "overwhelming sense of relief".

"I would like to thank all those who have been involved in securing the safe release of my wife, Rosanna, and the four other members of the tourist group who were taken hostage in the Afar region of north-east Ethiopia 13 days ago," he said.

"Words simply cannot express the overwhelming sense of relief that the news of their release brings."

Eight of the 13 Ethiopian drivers, translators and other staff kidnapped with the Europeans have not been freed.

The kidnapped Europeans were named after their release as Peter Rudge, first secretary of the British embassy in Addis Ababa; embassy worker Jonathan Ireland; two staff members from the Department for International Development, Malcolm Smart and Frenchwoman Laure Beaufils; and Ms Moore, an Anglo-Italian.

Eritrea has blamed the kidnapping on the Afar Revolutionary Democratic Unity Front, a rebel group which aims to unite Afar tribespeople in Ethiopia, Djibouti and Eritrea.

Ethiopia's foreign ministry released a statement accusing Eritrea of being behind the incident, which it called an act of terrorism.

Eritrea - which gained independence from the Addis Ababa government in 1993, and fought a 1998-2000 border war against Ethiopia in which more than 70,000 people died - has repeatedly rejected the accusation.

"This statement was made by Ethiopia because they think these kinds of statements will give them political mileage," Eritrea's information minister, Ali Abdu, told the Reuters news agency today.

"We not only deny this, but I think this is just a public relations stunt, and if there is anyone who is wishing to indulge in public relations bluffing then let them enjoy it."

The group was seized at gunpoint in the village of Hamedali, north-east Ethiopia. According to witnesses, around 50 men, some of them armed, burst into the village in the early hours of the morning and marched the tourists, along with the 13 local captives, towards the Eritrean border.

Fears for their safety increased when the party's 4x4 vehicles were later discovered abandoned, riddled with bullet holes and grenade shrapnel.