“(The Europeans) were scared but at the same time they tried to resist and not go with them,” the 18-year-old told a Reuters reporter, adding the group were whisked away at gunpoint.
“They were rebels from Afar. They were wearing the uniforms of Eritrean soldiers. But they were from Afar. They could have been a mixture of people from Eritrea and Afar,” he added.
Afar is home to one of the world’s hottest and driest climates, where the nomadic Afar people roam in barren landscapes of mountains and dry riverbeds in temperatures that often reaching 45 degrees Celsius (113 Fahrenheit).
The area was the scene of a rebellion against the Ethiopian government in the 1990s by separatists calling for an Afar state on territory straddling Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti.
The five hostages, who include diplomats and other people linked to the British embassy in Addis Ababa, are believed to have been kidnapped in the town of Hamad-Ile.
Investigators on Monday found two of their vehicles abandoned there, riddled by shrapnel. Witnesses said some of the Europeans’ personal belongings remained in the vehicles, suggesting robbery was not the motive.
A Foreign Office spokeswoman said there was still no contact with the kidnappers and no one had claimed responsibility or demanded ransom for the Western hostages.
ERITREAN DENIAL
Inhabitants of Hamad-Ile said about 50 men in Eritrean uniforms grabbed the hostages and then threw a hand grenade to disable their vehicles and prevent pursuit.
Ethiopian security forces searching for the group said their captors had taken them across the border into Eritrea.
“Our information is that Eritrean troops came into Ethiopia, kidnapped people and then went away to Eritrea again,” said Inspector Adem Musa, the regional police chief.
Local army commander Gebremarian Hadush said the hostages were being held in Wiema, Eritrea.
Eritrean Information Minister Ali Abdu, speaking by telephone from Asmara, denied the report. “That’s not true. We are sure they are inside Ethiopia because we know what happens along our border,” he told Reuters.
The Ethiopian government, which has poor ties with its neighbour Eritrea following a 1998-2000 border conflict, has not repeated the accusation of Eritrean involvement.
A three-member British investigation team left the kidnap area on Tuesday but there was no sign it had made progress. The team did not comment as it left Berahile, a town of sandy streets that Ethiopian police are using as a staging area.
A British Foreign Office spokeswoman in Addis Ababa said: “The discovery of the vehicles has been very distressing for the families of the missing people. We want to stress that we have no reason to believe that the people were in the vehicles.”
