Aunt of 10-year-old girl who vanished a year ago: ‘She was kidnapped, police are hiding information from us’

The aunt of Haymanut Kasau, the then-9-year-old Ethiopian-Israeli girl who was last seen almost a year ago at an absorption center for new immigrants in the northern city of Safed, says the family believes police are hiding information from them.

“They say the police are doing something, but it’s not enough, there’s nothing new. We don’t know anything. We think the police are hiding information,” the girl’s aunt Eden tells the Kan public broadcaster.

Eden says that the child’s parents, new immigrants who do not speak Hebrew well, are dismissed when they go to the police station to ask if there is any new information on the case.

The woman says the family wants Haymanut, who has since turned 10, to be declared as kidnapped, rather than missing, so that the investigation’s focus and resources can shift.

“She didn’t disappear, she was kidnapped. As for who did it — the police should know,” says Eden, whose surname is not given. “Whoever kidnapped Haymanut probably knows all the police processes. I don’t trust anyone at the absorption center. I think the police are hiding information from us. They can’t find a clue about a little girl who disappeared in the middle of the city?”

Eden says that while the children who were with Haymanut around the time of her disappearance gave different versions of what they saw, the common denominator was that the girl was taken by a stranger.

Haymanut was last seen in security footage at 7:45 p.m. on February 25, 2024, handing out municipal election leaflets outside the Jewish Agency absorption center, where she had lived for three years since immigrating with her family from Ethiopia.

According to a description, Haymanut stands at 1.2 meters (3’11”) and is slim with dark hair and dark eyes. She was wearing pink pants, a black skirt and a white shirt at the time of her disappearance.

The family intends to hold a rally on February 25, marking one year since the child disappeared.