MEKELE, Ethiopia - Several Ethiopians who were kidnapped along with five Britons touring the African country's remote northeast have been found, state media reported, and neighboring Eritrea on Sunday denied accusations that it was behind the group's disappearance.
The state-run Ethiopian News Agency said late Saturday that five of the 13 Ethiopians in the tour group were found near the border with Eritrea, but it was not clear whether they had escaped or were released.
Eritrean Information Minister Ali Abdu on Sunday denied claims by senior Ethiopian officials that Eritrean commandoes seized the group Thursday.
Relations between Ethiopia and Eritrea have been consistently strained since Eritrea gained independence from the Addis Ababa government in 1993 following a 30-year guerrilla war.
The tour group disappeared Thursday while traveling in Ethiopia's Afar region, a barren expanse of ancient salt mines and volcanoes some 500 miles northeast of the capital, Addis Ababa. Communications to Afar are extremely difficult, but the otherworldly, moonlike landscape draws adventure travelers.
The British Broadcasting Corp., 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 BBC report.
Esmal Ali Sero, head of the Afar administrative region, said about 25 Eritrean "commandoes" kidnapped the British citizens along with their Ethiopian drivers and translators Thursday night. He cited local investigators.
A senior Ethiopian official in the ruling party, who asked not to be named, also said Eritreans were behind the kidnapping. He said a herder saw the British group at the Ara-ta military camp in Eritrea and reported it to the Ethiopians. Herders in Afar frequently travel between the two countries.
Tour operators in the area also said they were told by police that Eritreans in military uniforms kidnapped the Britons and burned down the house where they were staying, along with several vehicles.
A spokeswoman for the British Embassy in Addis Ababa, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, said she had no information on the kidnappers: "We do not know where they are or who is holding them. We are not prepared to speculate."
Also Sunday, a group of French tourists who had also been missing since Thursday arrived in Mekele, the Afar region's capital, and said they had not been kidnapped, as was previously believed.
"Not at any time were we unsafe," said one of the tourists, who refused to give his name. He said the group simply did not have a satellite phone and so could not check in with Origins Ethiopia tour group. Samson Teshome, head of Origins Ethiopia, also said the group had not been kidnapped.
Bandits and a small rebel group operate in Afar, where the famous Ethiopian fossil of Lucy, the earliest known hominid, was discovered in 1974. The Ethiopian government requires tourists to travel in Afar with armed guards; the British and French groups were believed to have complied.
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Associated Press writers Tom Maliti in Addis Ababa and Anthony Mitchell in Djibouti contributed to this report.
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