Family of Israeli held for ransom in Ethiopia pleads for help in getting him freed
Kidnappers demanding $44,000 for release of Francis Adbabayi, 79, who was snatched last week in Gondar region
An Israeli man who is being held for ransom in Ethiopia was identified Wednesday as Francis Adbabayi, 79, as his family revealed details about the kidnapping last week.
Adbabayi’s relatives received a recorded message in which he pleaded for them to secure his release. Kidnappers also sent a short video clip and a photos of Adbabayi in which he could be seen bound hand and foot and guarded by an armed man.
Adbabayi, 79, from Rishon Lezion, traveled to his home country of Ethiopia a few weeks go. He planned to stay a month and was due to leave next Monday. However, last week he was kidnapped from the Gondar region in the north of the country.
The kidnappers are demanding 2.5 million Ethiopian birr, about NIS 160,000 ($44,000).
“Please help me, my brothers and sisters, they have kidnapped me,” Adbabayi said in the recording, according to Hebrew media translations of his Amharic remarks. “Take my words seriously. See how they handcuffed me. Please help me.”
He described being in middle of the forest, in the rain, with very poor sanitary conditions.
“I wouldn’t wish the nightmare that I am in even on my enemies,” Adbabayi said.
In a round of media interviews, two of his eight children begged for help in securing the release of their father.
“He is out in the open and he can die,” son, Avi, said in an interview with Channel 12, noting his father’s frail condition and that it is winter in the African country.
“It wasn’t easy to listen to that,” Avi said of the recording. “At first we didn’t believe that it was true and that something like this is happening. It is not a simple situation at all.”
Avi appealed to the Foreign Ministry to help in any way it can with Ethiopian authorities “so that our father doesn’t die for the sake of money.”
Daughter Fernos said her father had flown to Ethiopia to take the trip for health reasons.
“On Wednesday I spoke with him and then they grabbed him on Friday,” she said.
“They want money, so if there’s anyone who can help us to look for him and to find him, we will be glad of help from everyone,” she said. “I don’t want my father to die because of money.”
The Kan public broadcaster aired a recording of a conversation between Adbabayi’s family and the kidnappers in which they discussed the ransom.
According to the report, the family initially hoped to resolve the issue themselves but were unable to do so, and so contacted Israeli authorities.
Family members were set to fly out to Ethiopia in the coming days, the network said.
Adbabayi’s nephew, Mula Tzgaya, told the Ynet news site that a person who was accompanying Adbabayi on the trip is behind the kidnapping.
Tzgaya alleged that the man was under the impression that his uncle was rich and so conspired to kidnap him with his accomplices.
The family say they do not have the funds to pay the ransom.
The Foreign Ministry said that since being made aware of the incident, its consulate in Ethiopia has been in contact with local authorities and is working to secure Adbabayi’s release.
