Tourists killed in Ethiopia attack

Unknown assailants killed five foreign tourists in Ethiopia’s northeastern Afar region, state television reported.

The foreigners, whose nationalities were not immediately known, were killed on Monday in the remote region bordering Eritrea, Ethiopian Television (ETV) said on Tuesday, citing the defence ministry.

ETV said two tourists were injured severely and have been brought to a health clinic by defence forces. They are in critical condition, the television said. Another tourist survived the attack unharmed.

ETV suggested that the attackers were rebels with ties to Ethiopia’s archrival Eritrea, which hosts the exiled Oromo Liberation Front, a rebel group listed as a terrorist organisation by the Ethiopian government.

Ethiopia’s foreign ministry acknowledged tourists had been attacked in the Afar region but said it didn’t have any further details about the attack or the victims’ nationalities.

‘European’ group

In Berlin, a spokesman at the German foreign ministry, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, said it has received “reports of an attack on a tour group with Germans in Ethiopia” and that the ministry is trying to determine what had happened.

In Vienna, a spokesman at the Austrian foreign ministry said as many as 22 tourists of several European nationalities may have been attacked, including two Austrians.

At least one German and one Austrian were among those killed, Germany’s Bild daily reported on Tuesday, quoting security officials in Berlin.

In 2007, five Europeans – four Britons and a French citizen – were taken hostage and released unharmed, in exchange for a ransom.

aljazeera