{"id":31034,"date":"2026-04-07T17:25:06","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T15:25:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=31034"},"modified":"2026-04-07T17:25:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T15:25:06","slug":"ethiopian-police-arrest-suspected-trafficker-linked-to-libya-abuse-network","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/ethiopian-police-arrest-suspected-trafficker-linked-to-libya-abuse-network\/","title":{"rendered":"Ethiopian police arrest suspected trafficker linked to Libya abuse network"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Police in Ethiopia have arrested a man suspected of trafficking thousands of East Africans to Libya over several years.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The suspect, Yetbarek Dawit, was detained along with nine alleged accomplices in the northern town of Shire. Authorities believe the group has been operating since 2018.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Investigators say the network ran multiple detention centres in Libya, where victims were held in harsh conditions and forced to contact their families for ransom. Those who could not pay were reportedly beaten, starved and subjected to severe abuse.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Police allege that more than 100 people may have died as a result of the operation, while dozens of women were subjected to sexual violence. The group is also believed to have made millions of dollars through the scheme.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Authorities have since frozen bank accounts and seized properties linked to the suspects as investigations continue.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Reporting by Kaleb Moges from <em>BBC<\/em> indicates that the arrests mark a significant step in efforts to crack down on human trafficking networks operating across the region.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":23505,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-31034","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Police in Ethiopia have arrested a man suspected of trafficking thousands of East Africans to Libya","published_date":"2026-04-07 17:24:18","news_description":"Police in Ethiopia have arrested a man suspected of trafficking thousands of East Africans to Libya","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/31034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/31034\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31035,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/31034\/revisions\/31035"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=31034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}