Armed men dispatched from Eritrea killed a German tourist in Erta Ale, northeast of Ethiopia on Sunday, according to HornAffairs sources.
Erta Ale, located in Afar region, is an active volcano site and one of the hottest places on earth, and known by the Afar as the “smoking mountain” and “the gateway to hell”.
The armed group ambushed the tourist site on Sunday evening around 10 pm and clashed with Afar special police patrolling the area, according to HornAffairs sources. The area is about an hour or two distance on foot from the Eritrean border.
The clash involved lengthy “gun shots and bomb explosions”, a tour guide described to HornAffairs on condition of anonymity.
The German tourist and his Ethiopian tour guide were walking downhill to the volcano area, after parking their vehicle at Askoma and walking to the top of the hill surrounding the volcano, at the time, according to HornAffairs source.
According to one source, the two didn’t quickly took a hiding, while other tourists and guides did. Another source claimed, the German and his guide were half way through and couldn’t have found a hiding quickly.
The normal practice of the area is that a tourist or a tour group is accompanied by at least one local police officer, a militia man and a local road guide, in addition to the professional tour guide.
It appears the German tourist was travelling with a tour guide only, preceded and followed by other groups. The other groups took cover and remained there untill the morning while the two were not able to do likewise quickly.
According to accounts of the incident in the area, the armed group managed to infiltrate the area amidst the heavy shooting and confusion. Though, they didn’t control the area.
The Ethiopian tour guide was shot and wounded when he ran away refusing a call to stop, according to a local source. The German was similarly running when he was fatally shot by bullet.
One source claimed that an Ethiopian was abducted, but multiple sources doubted the information saying that they “were not informed of any abducted person”.
Ethiopian military officers arrived by helicopters hours later. The tour groups were made to remain in their places until noon time, as the Afar special police and the army officers combed the area.
The incident was the first of its kind in five years.
In January 2012, an Eritrean-based armed group, ARDUF, killed five Europeans (two Germans, two Hungarians and an Austrian) in that area and abducted two Germans to its base in Eritrea. The incident led to an Ethiopian military attack on Eritrea two months later.
A local official told HornAffairs, ARDUF had threatened about ten days ago that it would disrupt the Constitution and Nationalities day to be celebrated in the region this week. We were not able to verify if there were threats from ARDUF.
ARDUF didn’t take responsibility for the Sunday incident at the time of the writing of this news.
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Here we again TPLF back to its business killing and pointing their fingers at Eritrea, what happen to their ZERAF ZERAF chanting to scare who? perhaps the crow as for Eritrean Defence forces are ready to demolish TPLF once and for all there is no ZERAF ZERAF like before or cheap shot by Manquin Desalegn Hailemarian, “we will take appropriate measure” Mr. Daniel Berhane is at times he is Eritrean at times he is Agame and at times Oromo, well Mr Berhane save your inferiority complex Eritrea is here you can run your mouth like a diarrhea but you have no guts to pick up the gun and face Eritrea sooner you’re gonna look like Chiwawa Melles, the midget lucifer, please clean your messy pants!!
Here we come again. Another cowardly terrorist attack by the agents of the Asmara’s rogue regime against innocent Ethiopians and tourists. An unfortunate but avoidable heinous crime which I believe is clearly the result of our Country’s expired policies of “no war no peace”, “endless strategic patience” and “futile appeasements”. I believe the Government should expedite and come out with the much expected but delayed “new policies on Eritrea” which I hope would include an “effective deterrence mechanism” so that no such crimes would be committed by any group in the future.
Long live Ethiopia.