The Irish Red Cross has said it will not pay a ransom to secure the release of a member of staff who has been kidnapped in Ethiopia.
Donal Ó Súilleabháin (41), from Sligo, was kidnapped at gunpoint with an unnamed Ethiopian colleague from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Monday morning.
The ICRC believes neither man suffered any physical harm during the kidnapping, which took place in south-eastern Ethiopia.
Mr Ó Súilleabháin's brother Eoghan, who is an aid worker with Goal, flew from Sudan to Ethiopia yesterday to help with the diplomatic efforts to secure his brother's safe release.
ICRC officials in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, were leading attempts to secure the release of the Irish aid worker and his colleague.
Patrick Megevand, of the ICRC, told The Irish Times they had made contact with the organisation behind the kidnapping in an effort to secure the two men's release.
Mr Megevand did not name the organisation responsible. The separatist Ogaden National Liberation Front and a Somali-based Islamist group, Al-Ittihad, are two rebel armed groups believed to be operating in the region.
The chairman of the Irish Red Cross, David Andrews, said the Irishman had been kidnapped by "a crowd of brigands and bandits" who were "under the control of nobody". There was no question of a ransom being paid, he told journalists in Dublin. "We are a charity and charities by definition are not in the ransom business."
Mr Andrews said he had spoken to Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern about the case, and his officials were working hard to secure Mr Ó Súilleabháin's release. "Everything that can humanly be done is being done."
Mr Ó Súilleabháin was travelling with seven local staff of the ICRC north of Gode, in the Somali province, on Monday morning when their convoy was stopped by a group of armed men. The kidnappers released six of the men but took away Mr Ó Súilleabháin and an Ethiopian colleague.
Mr Andrews confirmed that ICRC staff had made contact with the kidnappers, though not with Mr Ó Súilleabháin, and had been told that no one was harmed or injured when the two men were taken.
"We haven't been informed what they are seeking. At this stage, we do not know what they want."
Mr Andrews, who called for the immediate and unconditional release of the Irish aid worker, declined to identify the group behind the kidnapping. A sensitive balance had to be struck in providing information, he said.
Referring to Ireland's 20-year record of providing aid and sending aid workers to Ethiopia, he said he hoped this would "touch heart-strings" and lead to Mr Ó Súilleabháin's release.
Mr Ó Súilleabháin, an experienced hydrologist, had just arrived in Ethiopia, having spent the previous year working in the Darfur region of Sudan.
