Tense and desperate wait in Ethiopia. The evacuation of the group of 18 tourists and their guide, most of them Catalan, trapped in a roadside hostel in Amhara, north-east Ethiopia, for ten days, has been delayed until at least today.
The Spanish tourists, including a 13-year-old girl and a man who needs heart medication, have been confined to a roadside hostel since last week with poor hygiene measures and little food after seeing each other surprised by the rebellion of the Fano group, facing the army.
On Wednesday, government troops regained control of the village where the tourists are taking refuge, located 90 kilometers from the city of Bahr Dir, and hope for a rescue was opened during the day yesterday. It did not materialize, to the despair of Noelia Bertran, guide from Katanga, the Barcelona travel agency organizing the group.
“It was a blow to the soul. We thought we might be evacuated but no one has moved anything. We are exhausted and from the embassy they tell us that tomorrow (for today) the road will be safe, but they told us the same thing yesterday and nothing has happened”. Although all members of the expedition are in good health, pessimism soared yesterday. “We all want to be cautious and hope that the road is safe, but neither the embassy nor the authorities are telling us anything and we are already afraid of being closed here for several more days. It’s desperate”, admitted Bertran.
Although the army yesterday assured that it had control of the route between Gondar and Bahr Dir and had removed the barricades placed by the rebels, the area is in a state of dangerous out of control and just yesterday there were thefts of the few vehicles who ventured to travel. A van was raided and the thieves barely left the documentation for the Ethiopian and Sudanese occupants. For Bertran, “the roads are not 100% safe, in places where there are no military controls there are thieves, going out without the support of the military would be suicidal”.
Ethiopian Daniel Abate, manager of the Kuriftu luxury hotel in Bahir Dar, confirmed to this newspaper that they are expecting the group today. “The road has already been cleared and the last barricades are being removed. It’s barely an hour’s drive from where they are, I’m convinced they’ll be safe at my hotel on Friday”, he explained.
Miquel Ribas, the director of Kananga, assumed yesterday with resignation the delay in the release of his clients and employees, and started arrangements to pay Ethiopian military to go and look for them today in the early hours of the morning in three trucks. “The priority is that they get out of there as soon as possible and with as much safety as possible. It seems that the situation is calmer and the army increasingly controls the area. I think that now it is.
