EUROPEAN HOSTAGES UNHARMED.

Five Europeans and eight locals kidnapped by gunmen in remote north Ethiopia are in good condition despite more than a week's captivity, the government and a local community leader said on Friday. But Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin could not confirm a report by a local leader that the captives had been seized by Afar separatist rebels and taken across the border to neighbouring Eritrea.

"Last evening, I heard that they are safe and secure. They are in good condition," Seyoum told reporters near the area in the desolate Afar region where the group was abducted eight days ago. The identity of the kidnappers was still unclear, he said. "They will be freed alive very soon ... Right now, I cannot say we are doing this or that, but we are doing something," he also told Ethiopian weekly the Sub-Saharan Informer which was published on Friday.

As well as eight Ethiopian translators, drivers and guides, the hostages include three British men, one Italian-British woman, and a French woman. The expatriate hostages are all linked to the British embassy in Ethiopia.
They were seized in the night during a tour of Afar, one of the world's harshest terrains, where temperatures touch 50 degrees Celsius and bandits stalk camel trains in the desert.

Let's hope everyone gets out of this unharmed.