Ogaden: Two Kenyan Police Officers Arrested For Kidnappings
On Monday 3 February 2014, two Kenyan police officers were arrested and will be charged for the abduction of two senior members of the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), which occurred on 26 January 2014 in Nairobi, Kenya. While their whereabouts remain unknown, it is believed that they were forcefully taken to Ethiopia. The kidnappings have further complicated diplomatic negotiations between the ONLF and Ethiopia.
Below is the article published by The Washington Post:
NAIROBI, Kenya — Two Kenyan police officers will be charged in court with the kidnapping of two officials of the Ethiopian group, the Ogaden National Liberation Front, a Kenyan official said Monday [3 February 2014].
Nairobi Criminal Investigations chief Nicholas Kamwende said witnesses identified the two Kenyan officers as having allegedly abducted of Sulub Abdi Ahmed and Ali Ahmed Hussein on January 26 [2014] outside a restaurant in the capital, Nairobi.
The two police officers were brought to court on Monday [3 February 2014], but the reading of their charges was postponed until Thursday [6 February 2014].
Court documents show that Kenyan police believe that after their abduction Ahmed and Hussein were taken to Ethiopia.
Ahmed and Hussein were part of Ogaden team in Kenya for negotiations with the Ethiopian government, said Abdi Rahman Mahdi, the chief negotiator for ONLF told AP from London in a telephone interview.
Mahdi said on the day they were abducted [26 January 2014], Ahmed, a negotiator, and Hussein, a member of the negotiation team’s secretariat, were invited for lunch by an unknown person.
When the two walked out of the restaurant after lunch, six men came out of two cars and attempted to grab them but they resisted causing a melee, Mahdi said reconstructing event from witnesses and accounts given to him by the Kenya police.
Mahdi said Ahmed and Hussein were subdued when one of the abductors pulled out a police identification card and shouted for help from the crowd gathering around to see the commotion.
He said with help from some people from the crowd the abductors forced Ahmed and Hussein into the cars using blows and kicks. Mahdi said the two were driven to Moyale, at the Kenyan-Ethiopia border where they were picked up by helicopters.
“We fear for their lives and their well-being,” he said. Mahdi said he did not think the Kenyan government knew about the abduction and claimed it was solely the work of the Ethiopian military commander in charge of Eastern Command under which the Ogaden region falls.
Shimelis Kemal, an Ethiopian government spokesman, said he has no information about the alleged kidnapping of Ogaden officials in Nairobi.
Mahdi said without the unconditional release of the two ONLF members negotiations with Ethiopia will not resume and Kenya will no longer be safe as a venue to hold the talks. He said Kenya has been working to revive the talks.
“If they’re not returned safely it will be very hard for us to face another round of talks with Ethiopia let alone coming to Kenya,” he said.
