Kidnapped Chinese workers freed in Ethiopia
Afp, Addis Ababa
Seven Chinese workers captured in an attack last week on an oil plant by separatist rebels in eastern Ethiopia in which 77 people died have been released, their kidnappers told AFP yesterday. "We have released the Chinese at 2:00 pm (1100 GMT) today to the ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross)," said Abderahmane Mahdi, the London-based spokesman for the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF). "They are safe and well they are now on their way to Jijiga," the state capital of Ethiopia's eastern Somali region, Mahdi said. One Somali and one Ethiopian captured in Tuesday's dawn raid were also freed, he said. The ICRC in Addis Ababa confirmed that the workers had been handed over to them and said it would issue more details later in the day. A temporary ceasefire was arranged between the ONLF and the Ethiopian army -- with the ICRC acting as mediator -- to facilitate the handover, Mahdi said. The attack, which left 68 Ethiopian workers and nine Chinese dead, was the first on an oil site since the ONLF issued a threat to foreign companies operating in the region a year ago. The ONLF wants independence for ethnic Somalis in Ethiopia's eastern Ogaden region, which is part of the Somali region. Sinopec, the parent company of Zhongyuan Petroleum Exploration Bureau, operator of the Ogaden oil venture, said Thursday it had no plans to pull out of the resource-rich region despite the attack.
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