VOA标准英语2008年-Two Foreign Aid Workers Kidnapped Along Ethiopi

Two aid workers from French charity Medecins du Monde have been kidnapped while travelling in a remote region along the border between Ethiopia and Somalia. VOA's Peter Heinlein in Addis Ababa reports a rebel group active in the area has denied responsibility for the incident.

Details of the abduction are sketchy¹. Officials say a group of heavily-armed men captured the two humanitarian² workers who were providing aid to victims of the severe drought gripping Ethiopia's Somali region. A spokeswoman at the Medecins du Monde headquarters in Paris, who asked that she not be identified by name, would say only that the incident occurred Monday.

"Two expatriates from Medecins du Monde have been kidnapped in Ethiopia, and that's all. We don't mention the nationality or if they are male or female. We don't say that. We don't communicate more details about that, for the security of our team," she said.

Diplomats⁴ and aid agency sources in the Ethiopian capital also asked not to be quoted, but confirmed privately⁵ that the kidnap victims were a Japanese woman and a Dutch man.

There was no immediate⁶ claim of responsibility for the kidnapping, and it was unclear whether it occurred in Ethiopia or Somalia. Two officials in Ethiopia's Somali region, known as the Ogaden, flatly denied there had been any recent kidnappings on the Ethiopian side of the border.

The Ogaden National Liberation Front, a rebel group fighting for the region's independence, condemned⁷ the abduction, calling it a cowardly act.

A senior French diplomat³ told VOA the incident might be the work of criminals. Armed Somali gangs have carried out several kidnappings in recent months, often targeting foreigners and humanitarian workers and demanding ransom⁸.

Somalia has been plagued by conflict since 1991, when the dictator Mohammed Siad Barre was overthrown⁹. Three years of failed rains have worsened already severe living conditions on both sides of the Ethiopia/Somalia border.

The United Nations World Food Program this week issued an appeal for an additional $460 million to provide emergency food aid in the Horn of Africa region. Officials say nearly half of the four million people living in Ethiopia's Somali region are facing starvation, and conditions are said to be as bad or worse on the Somalia side of the border.

Aid agencies have declined to describe the situation as a famine, but World Food Program Director Josette Shearan this week said the region is facing the worst humanitarian crisis since 1984, when famine killed an estimated one million people.

Ethiopian officials say they have no way of knowing how many people have died during the current crisis, but humanitarian workers say mortality rates in the worst-affected areas are unusually high, especially among children.

1 sketchy   

adj.写生的，写生风格的，概略的

参考例句：

• The material he supplied is too sketchy.他提供的材料过于简略。
• Details of what actually happened are still sketchy.对于已发生事实的详细情况知道的仍然有限。

2 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

3 diplomat   

n.外交官，外交家；能交际的人，圆滑的人

参考例句：

• The diplomat threw in a joke, and the tension was instantly relieved.那位外交官插进一个笑话，紧张的气氛顿时缓和下来。
• He served as a diplomat in Russia before the war.战前他在俄罗斯当外交官。

4 diplomats   

n.外交官( diplomat的名词复数 )；有手腕的人，善于交际的人

参考例句：

• These events led to the expulsion of senior diplomats from the country. 这些事件导致一些高级外交官被驱逐出境。
• The court has no jurisdiction over foreign diplomats living in this country. 法院对驻本国的外交官无裁判权。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 privately   

adv.以私人的身份，悄悄地，私下地

参考例句：

• Some ministers admit privately that unemployment could continue to rise.一些部长私下承认失业率可能继续升高。
• The man privately admits that his motive is profits.那人私下承认他的动机是为了牟利。

6 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。

7 condemned   

adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He condemned the hypocrisy of those politicians who do one thing and say another. 他谴责了那些说一套做一套的政客的虚伪。
• The policy has been condemned as a regressive step. 这项政策被认为是一种倒退而受到谴责。

8 ransom   

n.赎金，赎身；v.赎回，解救

参考例句：

• We'd better arrange the ransom right away.我们最好马上把索取赎金的事安排好。
• The kidnappers exacted a ransom of 10000 from the family.绑架者向这家人家勒索10000英镑的赎金。

9 overthrown   

adj. 打翻的，推倒的，倾覆的 动词overthrow的过去分词

参考例句：

• The president was overthrown in a military coup. 总统在军事政变中被赶下台。
• He has overthrown the basic standards of morality. 他已摒弃了基本的道德标准。