UK tourists held by Eritreans-Ethiopian official

ADDIS ABABA, Mar 3 (Reuters) A senior Ethiopian official accused Eritrean forces today of kidnapping five Britons and 13 Ethiopians and taking them to a military camp in neighbouring Eritrea.

The five tourists, including diplomats from the British embassy in Addis Ababa, went missing on Thursday in a remote area of the Horn of Africa nation.

''They were taken to Wema district of Asab Province in Eritrea.

This has been confirmed by two Ethiopians of Afar origin who have been left behind,'' Ismael Ali Sero, the head of the Afar administrative region, told Reuters by telephone.

''We have confirmation that the commandos came from Arat military training camp inside Eritrea. They torched four vehicles and two homes before they left with the group.'' There was no immediate comment from the Eritrean government.

Ethiopia and Eritrea fought a war in 1998-2000 and are embroiled in another dispute over their common border which the United Nations said in January could lead to renewed hostilities.

Britain has sent a six-strong team of senior Foreign Office officials to Ethiopia to help free those kidnapped. It said the missing were staff from the embassy in Addis Ababa or relatives of members of staff.

Tour companies said the groups disappeared while visiting the northeast Afar region, considered one of the world's most hostile terrains. The missing Ethiopians were people from the Afar region who were working as drivers and translators.

HOSTILE TERRAIN Sero said the tourists were taken in the middle of the night as they slept in houses in the salt market of Hamedala.

''The cars were hit by RPG (rocket propelled grenades) and set on fire. We found mobiles and money of the kidnapped people in parts of the vehicles which were not destroyed,'' Ismael said.

A separate group of seven French tourists also went missing on Thursday but the head of the tour company that organised their trip said they were safe.

A French diplomat was unable to confirm the report. He said Paris had not yet made direct contact with them.

British embassy staff flew to the city of Mekele in the north of the country, which has the closest airport to the area where the Westerners went missing, expatriate sources said.

Afar, one of Ethiopia's poorest regions, was also the site of a low-level rebellion against the government in the 1990s by separatists calling for an Afar state on territory straddling Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti.

Samson Hailu, head of Origin Ethiopia Tour Agency which organised the trip for the French tourists, told Reuters the agency had lost communication with the group for a short while.

''We had communication difficulty and we did not know their whereabouts,'' Samson said.

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