Ethiopians Say Eritrea Abducted Tourist Group

MEKELE, Ethiopia, March 3 -- Ethiopian officials on Saturday accused forces from archrival Eritrea of kidnapping five British citizens and 13 Ethiopians who were touring a remote region near the African countries' long-disputed border, then taking the group to a military camp in Eritrea.

The claims could not be independently verified. The group went missing Thursday while traveling in Ethiopia's Afar region, a barren expanse of ancient salt mines and volcanoes about 500 miles northeast of the capital, Addis Ababa.

Calls to Eritrea's government spokesman went unanswered.

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

The BBC, quoting unidentified government sources, said there was a "national security dimension" to the disappearance of the Britons, all of whom are employees of the British Embassy in Addis Ababa or their relatives. The British Foreign Office and the British Defense Ministry would not comment on the report.

Esmal Ali Sero, head of the Afar administrative region, said about 25 Eritrean "commandos" kidnapped the British citizens along with their Ethiopian drivers and translators Thursday night. He did not say how he knew those details.

A senior Ethiopian official in the ruling party, who asked not to be named, also said Eritreans were behind the kidnapping. A spokeswoman for the British Embassy in Addis Ababa said she had no information on the kidnappers.

Also Saturday, the head of an Afar tour agency said the driver for seven missing French tourists had called to say everyone was safe and had not been kidnapped. Ethiopia requires tourists to have armed guards in Afar, where bandits and rebels operate; the British and French groups were believed to have complied.

Britain had sent a crisis team to Ethiopia earlier Saturday to obtain the release of the Britons.