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By GETHIN CHAMBERLAIN AND CAROLINE McCLATCHEY 4 March 2007, The Sunday Telegraph FRIENDS AND family of one of the British women kidnapped in Ethiopia say they believe the strength of her personality will see her through the ordeal. Rosanna Moore, whose husband Michael is the director of the British Council in Ethiopia, is described as a well-respected member of the community in Addis Ababa, the capital. She was one of five Britons - two women and three men, all linked to the British embassy - snatched by gunmen from their beds at a remote guesthouse in the Danakil desert, part of the Afar region near the Eritrean border, in the early hours of Thursday morning. Witnesses reported seeing the group, and a number of Ethiopians travelling with them, being marched towards the border. Yesterday Ethiopian officials claimed that they had been taken to an Eritrean military base 22 miles across the border at Wemba, in Assab province. Separatist rebels and bandits also operate in the area. Those seized were involved with the Foreign Office, the Department for International Development and the British Council. Ethiopian police said last night five Ethiopians who escaped the kidnappers had turned up on the border with Eritrea. The five had been picked up by the Ethiopian army but had no information on the captured Britons. Friends of Italian-born Mrs Moore, who is thought to be aged 50, said they believed she was strong enough to cope with whatever hardships she had to endure. Last night her sister Angelica said from her home near Udine, north of Venice: "We are just hoping and praying this is over quickly.'' The mayor of Udine, Attilo Vuga, said: "She is a level-headed woman and will be doing her best to keep things calm and try to resolve the situation. All we want is for this to be over as quickly as possible, so that when she is released and comes back we can throw a big party for her.'' Gary Campbell, who worked with Mrs Moore at the Addis Stage theatre group, where she recently directed Macbeth, said: "She's very well respected. She's got a very strong personality and we are hoping that will get her through whatever's going on.'' Mrs Moore, who has British citizenship, speaks Russian and she and her husband previously worked in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The two vehicles in which the group were travelling were found yesterday burnt out at Hamed Ela, near the Eritrean border. Tony Hickey, the group's tour operator, said the cars had been hit by rocket-propelled grenades. Two buildings in which the group were sleeping were burned out. A team of 10 British officials has been sent to Addis Ababa to co-ordinate efforts to secure the group's release. The Foreign Office said it was talking to governments in the region. British defence sources said there were three options that could secure the release of the group. "They can negotiate their own way out, they can be negotiated out or there can be some sort of assault,'' one said. The SAS would already have sent a two-man team to Ethiopia to advise on negotiations and to prepare the ground for any possible rescue mission. A team of at least 16 SAS soldiers is also understood to have been moved to a forward base, probably in Cyprus. But Clive Fairweather, who was second in command of the SAS at the time of the Iranian embassy siege in 1980, said a rescue mission in such difficult terrain was fraught with danger. "You have to assess whether you could get in without the other side knowing and whether you could get the hostages out,'' he said. "We always reckoned that an operation that got the balance of the people out was the best we could offer. We never reckoned on getting everyone out. "You can never tell how the other side will react. If you achieve surprise you can be fairly certain of getting people out but, if not, it takes only 30 seconds for the takers to start killing the hostages.'' Col John Nicholas Blashford-Snell, the veteran explorer who has been kidnapped twice by bandits in the same region, advised the hostages not to excite their kidnappers. The 70-year-old said: "They should just take things very slow and calmly. I think you have just got to smile at them and let events take their course.'' The Horn of Africa and Arabia can be dangerous for tourists who stray off the beaten track. In Yemen, across the Red Sea, four British tourists were killed in 1998. In Ethiopia, Afar separatists kidnapped nine Italians in 1995 but freed them two weeks later. Additional reporting: Special Correspondent in Addis Ababa and Nick Pisa in Rome
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