Ethiopia: wave of arrests of migrant traffickers

Sub-Saharan migrants demonstrate in front of the Libyan embassy in Rabat, Morocco to denounce slavery, on November 23, 2017. FADEL SENNA / AFP

Text by: RFI Follow

Ethiopian snipers against heads of networks of migrant smugglers to Libya. Last week, a famous trafficker of Eritrean origin was arrested with accomplices. And this follows the arrest, last month, of another head of the network, in a wave of large-scale arrests.

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It was one of his victims who alerted the police after recognizing him on the street. Because Eritrean Tewelde Goitom, nicknamed "Walid", circulated freely in Ethiopia, continuing to organize the traffic which made him a millionaire . Soon other victims came forward. "Walid" was arrested on Friday with his brother and four accomplices while drinking coffee in a public place.

"Walid" is a bad guy with a sinister reputation among the migrants from the Horn of Africa. He enjoyed parading with weapons of war and boasted of raping all the women who passed through his networks , says Eritrean journalist Meron Estefanos.

" Her arrest is a comfort to all the victims and their families, " she explains to RFI. Comfort for those he has kidnapped and tortured, and a message to all other traffickers who inhumanely exploit innocent refugees. I am happy to know that he is behind bars. "

Another famous trafficker, also of Eritrean descent, Kidane Zekarias Habtemariam, who was captured by Ethiopian police on March 4 in what looks like a large-scale operation against criminal networks, organize trafficking to Libya .

This operation is still in progress, says a source close to the Ethiopian investigators, who adds that the two men, holding several passports, were under close surveillance. Another Ethiopian source says that the authorities are now studying their best option, extraditing them to a European country where they are being prosecuted or trying them locally.

►Also read: Coordinate the fight against migrant smuggling networks

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  • Ethiopia
  • International Migration
  • Libya
  • Eritrea

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