An ONLF official told AFP the two kidnapped men had been taken to the Ethiopian border and handed over to the authorities there.

The group said the incident was a breach of trust that would “represent a serious obstacle to any future discussions with Ethiopia.”

“We call on the Kenyan government… in its capacity as facilitator (in the talks) to undertake an in-depth investigation and to ask the Ethiopian government to hand back the people who were seized,” the ONLF said last month.

One ONLF faction signed an agreement with Addis Ababa and agreed to lay down its arms in June 2010 after talks in Germany, but the hard core of the movement has continued fighting.

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Source: Agence France Presse, February 6, 2014.