Many regions of Ethiopia, Africa’s second most populous country, with around 120 million inhabitants, are plagued by kidnappings since  the end of the brutal two-year civil war between the government and rebel forces in the northern region of Tigray.

That conflict largely ended with a peace agreement in November 2022, but armed rebellions have worsened in two other regions, Oromia and Amhara.

Armed groups are exploiting the security vacuum in areas beyond the government’s control, said Mebrihi Brhane of the Human Rights First Ethiopia NGO. “The capital city is the only safe place in the country,” he said, adding that kidnappings have become an “epidemic”.

The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, a state-affiliated but independent body, warned in a report this month of a “proliferation and aggravation” of abductions both by organised criminal gangs and “members of the government security forces”.