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By Andrew Heavens
27 April, 2007
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Eight Ethiopians made a tearful return to Addis Ababa on Thursday, two months after being kidnapped at gunpoint with five Europeans in the country's remote northeastern Afar region.
"I am good. I am too happy. The first thing I want to do is have a beer," one former hostage, Ashenafe Mekonnen, told Reuters before being ushered away by government officials who said the eight would make full statements on Friday.
Crowds of cheering friends and family thronged the capital's Bole International Airport long before the eight arrived.
"This is a time to praise God," said Samson Teshome, a close friend of Ashenafe -- who worked as a guide for the Europeans.
Their group was abducted in the early hours of March 1 from the small town of Hamed-Ila, near the Eritrean border, by gunmen who later said they were from an Afar separatist movement.
The Europeans -- all linked to the British diplomatic community in Ethiopia -- were released two weeks later. They comprised three British men, an Italian-British woman and a French woman.
But the eight Ethiopians were only freed on Sunday, reportedly after Afar elders intervened with the kidnappers.
Ethiopia has repeatedly blamed its arch-foe Eritrea for masterminding the abduction. Asmara denies the charges.
But mystery surrounds the exact circumstances of the kidnapping as the Europeans have also declined to discuss their ordeal on the advice of Britain's Foreign Office.
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