Eritrea has arrested two local employees of the US embassy in Asmara on charges of human trafficking, the government said on Thursday - the latest in a series of diplomatic difficulties between the two countries.
"These parties are accountable to the law for their illicit engagement in activities of human trafficking and, as such, like all other wrongdoers, they are being held under custody for their offence," Information Minister Ali Abdu Ahmed said.
The minister, speaking to Reuters in Nairobi by telephone, would not give more details of the incident. Several weeks ago Eritrea's rebel movement-turned-government asked the US government's overseas development agency, USAID, to leave without any public explanation.
The two countries are also still at odds over the arrest in 2001 of two other local employees of the embassy. The US mission in Asmara would not confirm or deny the latest arrests. A spokesman added that the two employees arrested in 2001 were still being held without charge despite Washington's repeated demands for their release or trial.
Abdu said Eritrea, which lies in the Horn of Africa, had a sovereign obligation to act in its national interests. "Like in any other sovereign states, citizens, irrespective of where they work, are accountable to the laws of the land," he said.
A website run by Eritrean exiles, awate.com, said the embassy employees had been arrested in August. It named them as Fitwi Gezae, "webmaster of the US embassy", and Biniam Girmay, a "facility management assistant".