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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Fred Harter in Addis Ababa

‘This is a pandemic’: Ethiopia’s Oromia region gripped by surge in kidnappings

A group of men sitting in the back of a red pickup truck, with one holding the red, yellow and green flag of the Oromo Liberation Army in Oromia, Waliso, Ethiopia
Man holds a flag of the Oromo Liberation Army in Oromia, Waliso, Ethiopia. Until recently, kidnappings rarely happened outside OLA strongholds in western Oromia. Photograph: Eric Lafforgue/Alamy

The gunmen came for Alemetu when she was sleeping. They marched her out of her home in Ethiopia’s Oromia region and took her to a disused school in the countryside, where she was held hostage for four weeks.

About 40 fighters were living at the school, although hundreds of men passed through. Alemetu, who was pregnant when she was taken, said her captors beat her with a horsewhip. On one occasion, she was tied up and suspended upside down from a tree for several hours, an ordeal that left deep psychological and physical scars.

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