Tense and desperate waiting in Ethiopia. The evacuation of the group of 18 tourists and their guide, most of them Catalan, trapped in a roadside hostel in Amhara, northeastern Ethiopia, for ten days has been delayed until at least today.
The Spanish tourists, including a 13-year-old minor and a man who needs medication for his heart, have been confined since last week to a roadside hostel with poor hygiene measures and little food after being surprised by the rebellion of the Fano group, facing the army.
On Wednesday, government troops retook control of the village where the tourists take refuge, located 90 kilometers from the city of Bahr Dir, and hopes of a rescue arose yesterday. This did not happen to the despair of Noelia Bertran, a guide from Katanga, the Barcelona travel agency that organized the group. “It has been a mental blow. We thought we could be evacuated but nobody 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 the day before and nothing has happened”. Although all the members of the expedition are in good health, pessimism skyrocketed yesterday. “We all want to be prudent and wait for the road to be safe, but neither the embassy nor the authorities tell us anything and we already fear being locked up here for several more days. It is desperate”, admitted Bertran.
Although the army assured yesterday that it had controlled the route between Gondar and Bahr Dir and had removed the barricades placed by the rebels, the area is in a dangerous state of uncontrol and yesterday the few vehicles that ventured to travel were robbed. A van was broken into 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 checkpoints there are thieves, leaving without the support of the military would be suicidal."
The 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 is already cleared and they are removing the last barricades. There is barely an hour's drive from where they are, I am convinced that during Friday they will be safe in my hotel, ”he explained.
Miquel Ribas, the director of Kananga, accepted with resignation yesterday the delay in the release of his clients and employees and had initiated efforts to pay the Ethiopian military to go and look for them early this morning in three trucks. “The priority is that they get out of there as soon as possible and with the maximum security possible. It seems that the situation is calmer and the army is increasingly in control of the area. I think that now it is."
