'It was terrifying' - escaping Ethiopia's armed kidnappers
BBC News, Addis Ababa
Bekele's sister is one of dozens of students from Ethiopia's Debark University who have been missing for a week now - she got on a bus to go home at the end of the academic year, but never reached her destination.
No-one in the family had been able to make contact with her, so when his mobile phone lit up, telling Bekele he had an incoming call from his sister, he swiftly pressed accept. The names of the people the BBC spoke to for this article have been changed for safety reasons.
He was greeted by the voice he had longed to hear, but then an unfamiliar man's voice came on, telling him that if he ever wanted to see his sister again, he needed to cough up 700,000 Ethiopian birr ($12,000; £9,400).
Dozens of bus passengers, mostly students, were kidnapped by gunmen last Wednesday.
...... https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp38yy4p8g3o
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