China condemns 'atrocious attack'

China has today condemned the attack on a Chinese oil company site in Ethiopia that killed 74 people, including nine Chinese, and said it was working for the release of another seven Chinese taken hostage in the assault.

"The Chinese government strongly condemns this atrocious armed attack, mourns for the Chinese and Ethiopian victims and expresses deep sympathies to their families and those injured in the attack," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said in a statement posted on the ministry's Web site.

Rebels stormed a Chinese-run oilfield in eastern Ethiopia yesterday, destroying an exploration facility, killing 74 people, and kidnapping seven Chinese in the first such attack against a foreign company in the African nation.

The oilfield is run by Zhongyuan Petroleum Exploration Bureau, a unit of Sinopec.

The attack by more than 200 rebel fighters lasted about an hour, and followed a warning the rebel Ogaden National Liberation Front made last year against any investment in eastern Ethiopia's Ogaden area.

Liu said China had asked Ethiopia to work for the safe return for the kidnapped workers.

He said the ministry, the Ministry of Commerce and the Chinese Embassy in Addis Ababa had formed an emergency team to deal with the incident.

According to Dow Jones Newswires, Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing has held a telephone conversation with his Ethiopian counterpart Seyoum Mesfin.

Meanhwile, Sinopec said yesterday it would not scale down operations in Africa, despite the assault at its Ethiopian exploration block.

“Since the central government has asked our company to go overseas to secure more oil assets, we won't retreat from Africa on the attack," a Sinopec spokesman told Dow Jones, but declined to be identified.

He also said the company is trying to rescue the kidnapped workers and console families of the dead with the support of the Chinese Foreign Ministry.