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Thursday, 08 January, 2009, 23:50 GMT | more >>

Ethiopia hunts for kidnapped workers



By Upstream staff 

Ethiopian troops stepped up their hunt for seven Chinese and Ethiopian workers kidnapped in a rebel attack on an oilfield yesterday that left 74 people dead.

Ethiopian troops have stepped up their hunt for seven Chinese and Ethiopian workers kidnapped yesterday in a rebel attack on an oilfield that left 74 people dead.

The Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), ethnic Somalis fighting for independence since 1984, claimed responsibility for the pre-dawn raid on the Chinese-run field.

The rebels have repeatedly warned energy companies they will not allow oil and gas exploration in the area as long as the Ogaden people are "denied their rights to self-determination".

"The Ethiopian government will hunt down the perpetrators and bring them to justice," Bereket Simon, special adviser to Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, told Reuters.

"Bringing back these people will be our number one priority. We have assigned an appropriate force for the task."

Ethiopian officials said gunmen killed 65 Ethiopians and nine Chinese as they slept at the oilfield, which lies about 100 kilometres south of the regional capital Jijiga.

But in a statement published on its website, the ONLF blamed the deaths of a "handful" of Chinese on blasts caused by munitions during a battle they said killed or wounded 400 Ethiopian soldiers.

It denied abducting Chinese oil workers.

"They have been removed from the battlefield for their own safety and are being treated well," the ONLF said in its statement.

China's Xinhua news agency said the Chinese staff worked for Zhongyuan Petroleum Exploration Bureau, a Sinopec unit.

Officials from both companies declined comment.

Beijing "strongly condemned" the attack, which exposed the risks of its drive to use Africa's under-developed energy resources to feed a rapidly growing economy.

The bodies of the dead Chinese were due to be flown back to the capital Addis Ababa later today.

The ONLF was formed after Ethiopia crushed Somali troops trying to regain ethnic Somali areas in a 1977-78 war.

The ONLF said Ogaden remained a "battle zone" between its forces and those of the government.

"It is not a safe environment for any oil exploration to occur," it added.


Wednesday, 25 April, 2007, 10:36 GMT  | last updated: Wednesday, 25 April, 2007, 13:34 GMT

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