Ethiopia Says Extremist Groups Attacked Aid Workers
February 10, 2000
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (PANA) - Ethiopia Thursday identified the armed men who
attacked the vehicle of Doctors Without Borders early this week in the Ogaden
area of the country as "extremists" trained and armed by Eritrea.
The MSF vehicle was attacked by 10 armed men while en route from the town of
Jijiga to Deghabur Monday.
The Ethiopia driver was killed, another was injured while a French national,
who sustained serious wounds, is now in Nairobi, Kenya, receiving treatment,
according to MSF office in Addis Ababa.
The MSF vehicle was attacked 13 kms from Deghabur. The two wounded men were
rescued by MSF staff who rushed to the area when the vehicle failed to turn
up in the town by late Monday.
The MSF said the attack was the third in the Ogaden region of eastern
Ethiopia in a year.
As a result, the humanitarian group, which won the 1999 Nobel peace prize,
immediately suspended its aid programme in Deghabur and evacuated all its
staff to Addis Ababa.
These include health and water and sanitation services. The only remaining
station is the tuberculosis programme in Jijiga.
The MSF also said it was stopping its ongoing exploratory mission in Gode,
central Ogaden, where its teams have been conducting nutritional and medical
surveillance for famine and measles alert.
Government spokesperson Selome Taddesse strongly condemned the attack on the
aid workers.
She said this was part of the Eritrean government's sinister designs "in
training and arming various extremist groups in an attempt to destabilise
Ethiopia."
The groups she cited include the Oromo Liberation Front, the Ogaden National
Liberation Front and Al-Itihad Al-Islam.
"Because the Ethiopia defence forces have crushed attempts by such groups to
infiltrate Ethiopia, the Issais (Eritrean President Afeworki) regime has been
increasingly supporting acts of terrorism aimed at civilians," Selome said.
She added that such acts of terrorism "should be condemned by the
international community".