In a landmark cross-border law enforcement operation, Ethiopian federal police have announced the capture of Yetbarek Dawit, the man accused of leading a brutal transnational human trafficking network that preyed on thousands of migration hopefuls across East Africa for nearly eight years. Dawit, who has not yet issued a public response to the allegations against him, was apprehended alongside nine suspected accomplices in Shire, a northern town located in Ethiopia’s Tigray region near the borders of Eritrea and Sudan. None of the 10 detainees have been formally charged in court as of the latest updates.
Authorities allege that since 2018, Dawit’s criminal organization lured more than 3,000 primarily young migrants from six East African nations — Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Sudan — with false promises of safe passage to Europe via Libya. Once the migrants arrived in Libya, the network confined them in five purpose-built detention warehouses run by Dawit, where they systematically subjected captives to extreme violence and abuse to extort additional ransom payments from their families back home.
Investigative testimonies collected from more than 100 survivors and their families spanning six countries (Ethiopia, Libya, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Canada) have linked the network to the deaths of over 100 migrants and the sexual abuse of more than 50 women. Survivor accounts detail horrific conditions inside the warehouses: captives who could not meet ransom demands were fed only once daily, and endured torture methods including beatings with rubber clubs, wooden sticks and electric wires, prolonged chaining of hands and feet, and burns from melted plastic dripped onto their skin. Women held captive were systematically subjected to sexual violence that left lasting physical and psychological trauma, authorities confirmed.
Law enforcement officials note that Dawit, who is wanted by law enforcement agencies across multiple countries, used a network of aliases to evade capture for years: he went by “Adhanom” in Sudan, “Ahmed” in Djibouti and Somalia, “Munir” in Kenya, and “Kibrom” in Sweden and other European nations. Investigators ultimately combined advanced tracking technology, witness testimonies, and cross-border collaboration to pinpoint his location in Shire. Following the arrest, authorities froze all bank accounts linked to Dawit and his co-conspirators, and seized all real estate and assets tied to the criminal group.
The successful operation was the culmination of a complex, months-long cross-border investigation led in partnership with the Regional Operational Centre (Rock), an East African anti-smuggling initiative funded by the European Union that was created specifically to disrupt transnational human smuggling and trafficking networks operating in the region. Official arrest photos of the suspects — seven men and three women — have been publicly shared on the Ethiopian Federal Police official Facebook page. Following their capture in Tigray, all 10 suspects were transferred to Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa on Monday for ongoing judicial processing. Ethiopian police estimate the criminal network generated more than $19 million (roughly £14 million) in illicit profits from its years of trafficking and extortion activities.