ADDIS ABABA , September 22, 2006 – The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has temporarily suspended its activities in Ethiopia's Somali region where two aid workers were kidnapped, officials said on Friday.

The humanitarian agency said it was in contact with the unknown kidnappers and hoped its two staff -- an Ethiopian and his Irish colleague -- would be freed soon.

"We've halted all our field activities in the Somali region temporarily," Kurg Eglin, deputy head of the ICRC in Ethiopia, told Reuters.

"We're not pulling out of the Somali region, but we're halting operations until the kidnap saga ends," he added.

The aid workers were kidnapped on Monday while working about 50 kms (31 miles) outside Gode town in Ethiopia's southeastern Ogaden area, located within the Somali region.

Another ICRC official said the kidnappers had told the aid agency its staff were "safe and in good condition."

"We are trying to persuade the perpetrators that the aid workers were in the area doing their routine work related to improved access to clean water for the people of the region and that ICRC has no other motives," Patrick Megezand, an ICRC information officer, told Reuters.

The Ethiopian government has launched an investigation into the kidnapping in the region where the rebel Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), a movement of ethnic Somalis fighting for independence, is known to be active.

ICRC has been active in Gode since 1995.

Megezand declined to give details of talks with the kidnappers, saying that the ICRC hoped the aid workers would be released unconditionally as soon as possible.

He said the ICRC would not release name of the Ethiopian aid worker upon the request of his family. The Irish government has named his colleague as Donal O'Suilleabhain.

Source: Reuters

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