An unknown number of foreigners remained missing amid kidnap fears in northern Ethiopia, while a group of ten French tourists was reported Friday to have turned up safe and well. The BBC reported that several Britons "with connections to the UK government" were among those missing, and that Whitehall officials had spoken of "a national security dimension" to their disappearance. As many as 18 people remained unaccounted for, the BBC quoted one tour operator as saying - but diplomatic sources said in Addis Ababa that a group of French tourists had turned up safe after a loss of contact for technical reasons. The foreigners - along with an unknown number of local drivers and interpreters - had been driving in the remote Afar region with separate tour companies when they were reportedly stopped on Wednesday evening. A source close to one of the Britons told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that the group of tourists did not return to their hotel as expected in Mekele, the largest town closest to the salt mines the tourists were visiting, in the northern Tigray region. One of the missing worked for the British department of international development while another woman was the wife of a diplomat, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject. Meanwhile the French embassy in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa confirmed there was a kidnapping, but gave no details as to how many people were taken. "We are sure that something happened. We don't know who has been kidnapped. We're in touch with the Ethiopian authorities," said the French ambassador Stephane Gompertz. He said the embassy was sending a representative to Mekele, near the Afar region. Rebel groups are known to operate out of the Afar region and have staged kidnappings in the past.
