A 3 Million Birr Ransom, 370,000 Birr Paid, and an Arrest in Woodland Outside Gonder

A child taken from Bole Bulbula was recovered after a week. The suspect had worked in the family's home for three months, left, and came back two months later.

A child abducted from Bole Bulbula, Woreda 12 in Addis Abeba on the evening of 27 August has been returned to her family, after kidnappers demanded 3 million birr and the family transferred 370,000 birr to a bank account under threat.

Addis Abeba Police say the suspect, a woman who had worked in the family's home, was arrested in woodland near the university in Gonder's Maraki sub-city, and the child was brought back to Addis Abeba from Bahir Dar on Wednesday evening.

The sequence

According to police, the suspect worked as a domestic employee in the household of Solomon Fentahun and Helen Hailemichael for three months, then asked for leave to visit family and did not return.

Two months later she came back to the area of her former employers with an accomplice and took the child from where she was playing. The accomplice then phoned the family with the ransom demand.

Addis Abeba Police, working with other security bodies, say technology-assisted tracking established that the suspect had travelled to the Amhara region with the child, and a coordinated operation acting on a tip-off led to the arrest in Gonder.

What the police said

Assistant Commissioner Admasu Ifa, who heads the tactical crimes investigation department at the Addis Abeba Police Commission, said children are first among the groups that need particular attention and protection, and urged parents to know and keep track of where their children spend their time and play. The police statement to households hiring domestic staff was to take care over who they employ.

The child's mother, Helen Hailemichael, said the suspect was known to the child because she had worked in the home, and that this was the opening the kidnapping used. She said police searched day and night from the point the family reported the disappearance.

Police have not said whether the accomplice has been arrested, or whether any part of the 370,000 birr was recovered.

Sources: Tikvah Ethiopia, 4 September 2026