Attempts to free kidnapped Irish aid worker underway

A kidnap negotiator is traveling to Ethiopia tonight as part of a series of measures to try and free an Irish aid worker abducted at gunpoint in the African country.

The brother of Donal O'Suilleabhain (41) from Colgagh, Co Sligo, is also understood to be making his way to the Somali region to help in the release bid.

The Irish Red Cross water and sanitation engineer along with an Ethiopian colleague were captured by an armed gang on Monday, just north of Gode, in the remote south-eastern Ogaden area.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has made contact with the group and have been assured that both hostages are safe and well.

Neither the Government nor the Red Cross are saying who they believe is behind the abduction. The ethnic Somali-inhabited region has seen low-level conflict between the army and rebels known as the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF).

A Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman said tonight: "The minister (Dermot Ahern) has ordered a senior officer from London who is experienced in negotiating in kidnap situations to travel to Addis Ababa and help Irish embassy officials there."

Mr O'Suilleabhain was with seven Ethiopian Red Cross staff when the pair were taken away on foot by the kidnappers at 10.00 local time.

He was the only Irish person working for the agency in Gode, some 680 miles (1,100km) east of the capital, however other Irish aid groups have a presence in the region.

Ireland has a long association with both Ethiopia and Somalia through humanitarian and financial relief since the civil war there in the 1990s.

Chairman of the Irish Red Cross and former minister for foreign affairs, David Andrews, appealed to Somali locals to "ask those who hold them to release them as an act of generosity and decency in response to our generous and decent response to them over the years."

He stressed the situation was very serious and insisted everything that could be done was being done.

"There are brigands and there are bands there that are out of control, under the control of nobody. And in that sense it would be risky," he said.

Mr Andrews said he was unaware of any demands, financial or political, from the abductors but ruled out the possibility of money being handed over.

He said: "There's no question of ransom. We are a charity. And charities by definition are not in the ransom business." Eoghan O'Suilleabhain, a brother of the kidnapped man and himself an aid worker with the Red Cross's sister agency GOAL, is understood to be flying to Ethiopia from Kenya tonight.

His father Brian said he last had contact from Donal through an email on Sunday evening, letting his family know about his work.

"Most of his work is in dangerous areas, so naturally we worry about him. But he is capable and he is level headed," he said.

"I don't think he would do anything to annoy his captors. He is the kind of person who would probably try to establish a good relationship with them."

Ethiopian government spokesman Zemedkun Teckle told Associated Press that police and security were investigating and trying to track down the kidnappers.

"No-one is sure at this time who the perpetrators are. We do not know if it is ONLF or not," he said.

The abducted man, a hydrologist engineer, has worked for the aid agency building new wells to provide clean water supplies for hundreds of thousands of people for last two years.

He went to Ethiopia from strife-torn Darfur in August and has also worked in Liberia. He has undergone security training.

The Red Cross has halted its activities in the region for the first time in 11 years.

Additional reporting PA/Reuters.