Beckett: Release of Embassy staff in Ethiopia

(13/03/2007)

The following press release has just been issued by the UK Foreign Office.

The Foreign Secretary, Margaret Beckett, made the following statement on Tuesday 13th March, following the release of the abducted Embassy staff in Ethiopia:
 

“As you will know, it is 13 days since five staff and family members from the British Embassy in Addis Ababa were abducted in northern Ethiopia. I am delighted to be able to tell you that all five were released earlier today to the Eritrean authorities and have just arrived in the care of our Embassy in Asmara.
 

“We have informed the families of all five. They were of course very relieved to hear the news and are looking forward to being reunited.
 

“The five are being fed and given fresh clean clothes. They are seeing a doctor and medical checks are continuing, but I understand that they are all broadly in good health.
 

“We continue, I'm afraid, to be concerned, however, for the welfare of the Ethiopians who were taken at the same time as the British Embassy group, about whom we do not yet have such clear news.
 

“British officials in Addis Ababa, Asmara, London and elsewhere have worked tirelessly since the five went missing and I would like to extend my personal thanks to our Ambassadors in Addis Ababa, Bob Dewar and Asmara, Nick Astbury, and their staff, as well as to officials in London and at the Department for International Development, for all the outstanding work that their teams put in to help secure the release of the five.
 

“We have also had exceptional assistance from Prime Minister Meles of Ethiopia and President Isias of Eritrea, as well as others in the region, and I thank them all for their efforts.

"We do expect the group to issue their own statement later. But I would like to take this opportunity to ask the media to respect their privacy and that of their families so that they are reunited and recover from the stresses of the last 13 days.”

ENDS