Ethiopia>>Beckett 'concerned' at kidnapping

Beckett 'concerned' at kidnapping

Mrs Beckett said she hoped the situation would be resolved soon

The government is "deeply concerned" about five Britons kidnapped a week ago in northern Ethiopia, Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett has said.

Mrs Beckett said: "We hope that those holding them will release them safely."

British embassy staff and their relatives were sightseeing in the Afar region when they disappeared.

Eritrea has denied claims its troops took them across its disputed border with Ethiopia, close to where the group went missing on 1 March.

'Round the clock'

BBC East Africa correspondent Adam Mynott said the British embassy is working to establish who the hostage-takers are, with Afar rebel groups and their splinter factions coming under suspicion.

Senior Foreign Office officials met families of the missing on Wednesday to brief them on the situation, she added.

Our paramount concern is for everybody's safety Margaret Beckett Foreign Secretary

"Obviously, this has been a very difficult time for the families of those who are missing," she said.

"Our staff in London and in Ethiopia have been working round the clock and we have reinforced our Embassy, as is usual in these circumstances.

"We hope that the situation will be resolved soon. Our paramount concern is for everybody's safety."

She paid tribute to the efforts of the British ambassador, Bob Dewar, and thanked governments in the region for their assistance - including those of both Ethiopia and Eritrea.

Mr Dewar has said the group may have been victims of mistaken identity. The five Britons were accompanied by 13 Ethiopian guides when they went missing in the early hours of 1 March.

One witness said "around 50 men" came into the camp where the Britons were staying that night.

Vehicles used by the party were found in the town of Hamedali, near the Eritrean border, on Monday.

A Toyota Land Cruiser and a Land Rover Discovery were discovered with shoes, luggage and mobile phones inside. Both showed signs of damage from either by shrapnel or an explosion.

'United front'

Ethiopia's relationship with Eritrea has been uneasy since Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia in 1993 after a 30-year guerrilla war.

Tourists are required by the Ethiopian government to travel with armed guards in the region.

BBC Africa analyst Martin Plaut said that a faction of Afar nationalists who stumbled across the Britons are most likely to be behind the kidnappings, rather than Islamic fundamentalists.

He added that a united front of groups seeking autonomy for two-million-strong Afar opposed Eritrean independence and sided with Ethiopia in a 1998 border war; but that some elements were opposed to participation within the Ethiopian government.