ADDIS ABABA (AFP) – Bandits killed a British oil worker and two Ethiopian soldiers in the remote southeastern Ogaden region of the Horn of Africa nation, officials said on Friday.

“It is an attack by some bandits and the Englishman and two Ethiopian service men have been killed,” Ethiopia’s state minister for communication Shimeles Kemal said of the attack on Monday.

The 39-year-old Briton was named as Jason Read by his employer IMC Geophysics International Ltd, which was subcontracted to the Malaysian oil giant Petronas.

“We are deeply shocked and saddened by this tragedy and our sincere thoughts and sympathies are with Jason’s family,” the company said in a statement.

The incident took place in Danot district in Somali region where several separatist groups operate.

“The Ethiopian authorities are carrying out a full inquiry and we are liaising closely with them,” said a Foreign Office spokeswoman said in London.

In 2007, the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) attacked a Chinese oil venture in the Ogaden region and killed 74 people.

Formed in 1984, the ONLF is fighting for the independence of ethnic Somalis in the Ogaden, who they say have been marginalised by Addis Ababa.