Kidnap throws spotlight on barren corner of Ethiopia

By Andrew Cawthorne

BERAHILE, Ethiopia (Reuters) - The mysterious kidnapping of five Europeans and eight locals has put the international spotlight on a remote, barren and searingly hot corner of Ethiopia left behind by the modern world.

The Afar region's 1.4 million inhabitants -- mainly nomads -- occupy one of the earth's harshest terrains. Here, rock-strewn hills give way to vast deserts below sea level, and dry river-beds and acacia thorn-trees dot the landscape.

Caravans of camels, roped to each other tail-to-mouth, haul blocks of salt from desert mines up the winding tracks for sale in Ethiopia's highlands.

Bandits, exhaustion, thirst and temperatures reaching 45 degrees Celsius (113 Fahrenheit) all stalk the sun-beaten herders who pace beside their precious camels on two-week treks.

The only foreigners who normally brave the inhospitable Afar are researchers, a few aid workers and adventure tourists visiting geographical wonders like the Danakil Depression with its ancient salt mines and volcanoes.

So it is no wonder friends and family of the three Britons, one French woman and one British-Italian woman abducted -- along with Ethiopians who were helping facilitate their trip -- are frantically worried about their conditions.

Local Ethiopian authorities say the group, taken last Thursday, has been marched into nearby Eritrea by soldiers from there. The two nations are arch-enemies.

But diplomats on the case are indicating the Europeans, who were all linked to the British Embassy in Addis Ababa, may have been taken by a local group.

Afar separatist rebels, active from the 1990s, still have some low-level operations, while many local communities are organized into militias ostensibly to protect themselves from Eritrean soldiers, local residents and officials say.

"The Afar people are angry about this crime," said Osman Abdela, 26, a government clerk in the town of Berahile, about 50 km (30 miles) from the village where an armed band kidnapped the Europeans and Ethiopians.

"This is intended to damage our relationship with the outside world, but here we love foreigners. We will do everything we can to help find these people," added Osman, surrounded by a crowd nodding in agreement.

'WALKING UNTIL I DIE'

Despite such warm words, the Afar -- or Danakil as they are also known -- have a fearsome reputation, most notably for their old habit of cutting off foes' testicles.

They are also one of Ethiopia's oldest ethnic groups, having occupied their region for two thousand years.

It was in the Afar in 1974 that researchers discovered "Lucy", the 3.2 million-year-old skeleton also known as Australopithecus afarensis, described by scientists as one of the world's greatest archaeological finds.