Irishman Donal O'Suilleabhain and Ethiopian Hadiis Ahmed Samatar were freed after spending five days in captivity, apparently at the hands of the rebel group that said they had been mistaken for foreign oil workers, they said.
"They were released this afternoon around 3:00 pm [1200 GMT] and are in good health," said Patrick Megevand, the spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Ethiopia. "They have contacted their families."
Megevand said that the pair were freed without condition near the town of Gode, about 1,100 kilometers (685 miles) southeast of Addis Ababa, where they had been abducted September 18 by gunmen who stopped their three-vehicle convoy.
The kidnappings prompted the ICRC to suspend operations for the first time in 11 years in Ethiopia's Somali state, a vast region that straddles Ethiopia and neighboring Somalia and is inhabited mainly by ethnic Somalis.
"Our activities remain suspended until further notice," Megevand said. "We are looking at the situation."
On Friday, the rebel United Western Somali Liberation Front (UWSLF) claimed responsibility for the abductions but said that it would release the pair within 48 hours after it determined that they were aid, and not oil, workers.
"We suspected that the two men were working for petroleum companies that were awarded contracts by Ethiopia to explore for oil and natural gas," it said in a statement released in Mogadishu. "After serious investigations, the organization realized the two were working for the ICRC and we realized they have nothing to do with the exploration of oil on our land," it said.
The group, which claims to be fighting for the rights of ethnic Somalis in western Somalia and eastern Ethiopia, also warned foreign energy firms against operating in the Somali region, which is home to several rebel movements.
"Any organization that attempts to explore for oil without permission from the people on the ground will be responsible for all the risks involved," said the statement signed by (UWSLF) spokesman Abdullahi Osman Gashan.
There was no independent confirmation of the group's claim of responsibility.
Ethiopian authorities had suggested that the abduction might have been the work of the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), another rebel group active in the area that has also warned foreign oil companies against working there.
In April, the ONLF warned all foreign firms, specifically mentioning two Indian energy companies that had expressed interest in working in the Ogaden area of Somali state, not to work in the area.
The Indian companies, Gail India Limited and the Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation Limited, were among firms to express interest in bidding to explore and develop Ogaden's Calub and Hilala gas fields.
The Ethiopian government dismissed the threat.
But in May, the ONLF claimed that the government had deployed troops to the region ahead of a planned seismic survey by China's Zhongyuan Petroleum Exploration Bureau and Malaysian oil giant Petronas.
Ogaden, a dry belt in Somali state, is believed to be lying on large quantities of gas, but further exploration is needed to verify the exact amount and develop the fields.
© 2006 Agence France-Presse
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