Of the 15 kidnapped, 11 were French nationals, one Briton and another was an Italian, the ministry added. The kidnapping occurred while the foreigners were touring the Afar region in the north-east of the vast Horn of Africa nation.

Speaking to Reuters, the French Ambassador Stephane Gompertz said, "A kidnapping or kidnappings did take place. It seems that the incident or incidents happened two days ago in the evening. At the moment, we don't know which group may be involved or why they have done this."

Gompertz added that two different groups, one containing 10 French nationals and the other made up of a mixture of nationalities had been kidnapped.

Meanwhile the Ethiopian government has said that while it was aware of the kidnapping incident, it could not confirm it. A spokesman for Information Ministry revealed that a statement will be made later today adding that the government is monitoring the situation.

Rebels in the Afar region had started a low-level agitation against the government in the 1990s to carve out a Afar state in the region between Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti.
 

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