On December 30, 2011 one of the most prestigious business newspapers in the world, the UK based Financial Times, published an articled entitled: “Top Destinations 2012” which featured travel industry insiders’ choice of hot destinations for 2012 ranging from Argentina’s tango bars to Ethiopia’s Danakil area.
According to the article, while not luxurious, Gheralta Lodge is a stylish base for trips into the Danakil desert, somewhere that Jonny Bealby of Wild Frontiers describes as “the most surreal landscape you’re ever likely to see.”
The region, located in north-eastern Ethiopia, is endowed with natural splendors making it a major tourist attraction. There are major sites like the Afar Depression, Erta-Ale active volcanic movement, the Awash National Park, Yangudi Rassa National Park, Hadar and Aramis area. The Hot springs, Afar culture and cultural games are other areas of attraction.
Moreover, Hadar, a community in Afar, was the site of the discovery of "Lucy", the Australopithecus afarensis skeletal remains, by Donald Johanson of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
In spite of this, the semi-arid region of Afar has for over a decade experienced recurring kidnappings and killings of tourists. The first record of kidnapping, according to record, was in March 1995 by the Afar Revolutionary Democratic Unity Front (ARDUF). The group was involved in the kidnapping of Italian tourists in the region, resulting in an Ethiopian military campaign against the group, which was claimed to have coordinated its activities with the Eritrean government.
The group, who had committed the acts then, claims to be members of a party that was founded in March 1993 as a coalition of three Afar organizations: the Afar Revolutionary Democratic Unity Union (ARDUU) founded in 1991 and led by Mohamooda Ga’as; the Afar Ummatah Demokrasiyyoh Focca (AUDF); and the Afar Revolutionary Forces (ARF).
And last week another shocking thing happened. Two Germans, two Hungarians and an Austrian national were killed and two Ethiopians and two Germans were kidnapped.
The rebel group, which is now fighting for an independent homeland, said it was responsible for kidnapping two German tourists and two Ethiopians last week but blamed Ethiopian troops for killing five others.
The ARDUF was fighting a low-key insurgency to create a homeland from Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti, said its four hostages were safe and in good health.
It did not say where in Afar it was holding them and gave no indication what it was demanding in return for their freedom.
"We can ensure that their peaceful release will be granted through peaceful negotiation ... through the Afar elders in the region," ARDUF said in a statement dated Jan 21 and published on an opposition party website.
The allegation made by ARDUF was the start of a war of words between the Ethiopian government and the rebel group.
At the beginning of this week, Ethiopia's foreign affairs spokesman Dina Mufti told The Associated Press that the statement made by the rebel group claiming that Ethiopian troops killed five European tourists during a gun battle is "pure fiction" and was completely untrue and resorted to blaming its decade-long arch-enemy Eritrea for the incident.
On the northern hemisphere, Hungarian survivors of the attack told how they were woken up by gunshots in their campsite in the shadow of the Erta Ale volcano before being hauled from their tents and beaten with clubs, Reuters reported.
"They made us line up together with two of our colleagues who slept in the other tent and fired shots at us ... we tried to escape," university researcher Zoltan Winter told a news conference in Budapest, according to a video posted on a website index.hu on Monday.
Then things started rolling after authorities in Ethiopia's northern Afar region sent elders to try to secure the release of two German tourists and two Ethiopians kidnapped by gunmen that the government believes are now inside Eritrea.
"The region is doing all it can to have them released," Afar's regional president, Ismael Ali Sero, said on ETV. "We have dispatched a team of elders to secure their freedom from their captors."
Ismael did not disclose whether the group had already made contact with the captors, or if officials had located their hideout.
But a government official said the attack was carried out by a heavily armed group of 30 to 40 men.
Foreigners who venture out into the area usually include researchers, aid workers and about 500 adventure tourists each year, visiting geographical wonders such as the Danakil Depression, with ancient salt mines and volcanoes.
In 2007, gunmen there seized five Europeans and eight Ethiopians. The Europeans were handed to the Eritrean authorities less than two weeks later and Britain said Asmara had helped to secure their release. The eight locals were freed a few weeks later.
Afar is an arid stretch of land in Ethiopia's north-east that is home to some of the world's harshest landscape with high temperatures regularly exceeding 50 degrees Celsius in the summer. Moreover, the region has managed to attract major international mining companies like BHP, Allana Resources and Sainik. And according to commentators, serious glitches such as this will have adverse effects.
And ever since the tensions rose, Ethiopia and Eritrea have been at loggerheads especially after Ethiopia suggested that the insurgents had been trained and armed by Eritrea and warned that “Ethiopia has the right to defend itself and will do so if necessary,” Dina told The Reporter. “This type of doings is what has been mentioned in the report issued by the UN Monitoring Group on Eritrea and Somalia.”
In addition to that, he said that ARDUF is a dysfunctional organization and Eritrea is purposely arming the group to escape accountability.
He also called on the international community to "assume its responsibilities and take the necessary steps to bring this problematic behavior to an end". It added that it was "not too late for international action.”
Ed.’s Note: Yemane Nagish has contributed to this story.
