Overlander Killed in Ethiopia
 

Taken from: http://www.news24.co.za/News24/South...147493,00.html

Mom tells of horror trip

Ainsley Moos and Liesl Louw

Pretoria - With the body of her murdered husband still behind the steering wheel of their vehicle, a woman from Pretoria sat next to the body and drove through a remote part of Ethiopia in search of help after they were attacked by robbers.

Alan Drodskie (34), his wife, Corrie (31) and their two children, Monique (9) and Llewellan (7), were in their 4x4 on the road from Addis Ababa to Gondar, near the Sudanese border.

Drodskie was driving and the children were asleep in the back when the first shots were fired.

Drodskie was hit in the head and died instantly, his wife and the children were not injured.

According to Corrie Drodskie's mother, Barbie Schultz, her daughter phoned her from Ethiopia, saying they had had problems with their vehicle on the road from Addis Ababa to Gondar, near the Sudanese border.

Dragged out by her hair

Apparently, Drodskie stopped and tried to discover what the problem was. They were able to get going again only late that night.

According to Corrie, once they had got going again they found two trucks blocking their way further along the road.

"Alan wanted to pass the vehicles. It was then that they started shooting at them."

Corrie's father, Kobus Schultz or Bronhorstspruit, said: "Alan was hit in the head through the window and died instantly. They dragged my daughter from the vehicle by her hair and hit her."

According to him, the attackers then left. "My daughter tried mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on Alan, but it was too late.

"Because Alan was such a big man, she could not move him to the passenger seat. She sat on the seat next to him and drove the car further."

An official at the South African embassy in Addis Ababa said Corrie arrived in Gondar early the next morning and she was treated at a hospital before she and the children flew to Addis Ababa. "She was severely traumatised by the incident."

The details of what happened are not clear yet, but bands of robbers roam the border areas of Ethiopia and there are sporadic fights between government forces and rebels in the area.

All the advice is don't drive at night, now you know why!