Ethiopian rebels said Tuesday, March 6 they had released two Germans held hostage since January 18 after a gunbattle that killed five other adventure tourists in the remote Afar desert region, AFP reported.

The two were handed over to German embassy officials and local elders in the desolate northern Ethiopian region on Monday, the Afar Revolutionary Democratic Unity Front (ARDUF) said in a statement.

They were seized in a bloody attack on the slopes of the famed Erta Ale volcano. Two other Germans, two Austrians and a Hungarian were killed in a gun battle between the rebels and government forces escorting the tourist group.

In their statement, the rebels apologised to the unnamed pair and wished them a safe return home. The rebels said the Ethiopian government had frustrated their earlier plans to free the Germans by making movement in the area "impossible".

The incident dealt a blow to regional tourism, after tourists were kidnapped in Kenyan resorts months earlier by Somali pirates.

Ethiopia says the rebels attacked the tourist convoy, but the ARDUF said fighting broke out when Ethiopian troops protecting the tourist party fired on one of its patrols and blamed Addis Ababa for the deaths.

ARDUF has been fighting a low-level insurgency in the northern region near the tense Eritrean border to end what it says is "political marginalisation and economic deprivation" by Addis Ababa.