Ethiopia: kidnapped Britons are 'safe'

The Ethiopian government has confirmed the group of British diplomats and their families kidnapped eight days ago are in a safe condition.

"Last evening, I heard that they are safe and secure. They are in good condition," foreign minister Seyoum Mesfin said.

He said he could not confirm reports by local officials and pastoralists that the group had been taken across the border to Eritrea, possibly by Afar separatist rebels. "We do not even know who the kidnappers are," he said.

Earlier, Ismael Ali Gardo, co-founder of the Afar Pastoralists Development Association, said word of the captives kidnapped by an armed group had been picked up and passed on by nomadic herders close to where they were being held in the Eritrean settlement of Weima.

"There are unharmed and safe and in Weima in Eritrea," Mr Ismael said.

As well as eight Ethiopian translators, drivers and guides, the group includes three British men, one Italian-British woman, and a French woman. They are all staff from the British Embassy in Addis Ababa or their relatives.

Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said: "We have had indications that people are saying the hostages are okay - where they are is still something that has to be looked at."

Eritrea has repeated its denial that the captives are on its territory.

Eritrea and Ethiopia still have bitter relations over a 1998-2000 border war and routinely fire belligerent rhetoric at one another.

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