AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE
Published — Friday 8 May 2015
CAIRO: President Abdel Fattah El-Sissi said Egypt had “rescued” 27 Ethiopians from war-torn Libya, as state television showed him greeting the group at Cairo airport on Thursday.
It was not immediately clear how the Ethiopians were rescued, but EL-Sissi’s office said the group flown in on an Egyptian plane was “liberated by Egyptian and Libyan security services.”
“All efforts were made to bring the Ethiopians to Egypt safely… Egyptian services participated in this effort to protect, rescue and secure our Ethiopian brothers,” El-Sissi told reporters at Cairo airport.
Their release comes weeks after a purported video released by the Islamic State group showed the executions of some 30 Ethiopian Christians captured in Libya.
EL-Sissi said Egypt was “pained by the gruesome beheading of innocent Ethiopians in Libya” and that the rescued Ethiopians were living in dire conditions in the war-strewn country.
“What is happening in Libya is a matter that concerns us and we tell the whole world that Libya should return to be a safe and stable country for its people and even to its visitors,” El-Sissi said.
Libya has plunged into chaos since the toppling of long-time autocrat Muammar Qaddafi, with rival militias fighting for the control of country’s oilfields and territories.
The killing of Ethiopians came weeks after the terrorists posted a similar video showing the beheadings of 21 Coptic Christians, all but one of them Egyptians, on a beach in Libya.
The killing of Egyptian Christians had prompted airstrikes by Cairo targeting IS targets inside Libya.
Since his election last year, El-Sissi has been working to improve relations with Addis Ababa amid a dispute over Nile water rights.
Ethiopia began diverting the Blue Nile in May 2013 to build a 6,000 megawatt dam, which will be Africa’s largest when completed in 2017.
This has raised fears in Cairo that Egypt’s share of the Nile water would fall. In March, Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan signed an agreement of principles on the dam to ease tensions.
SOURCE: http://www.arabnews.com/middle-east/news/743806