Ethiopia: Armed Group Kidnaps and Murders Humanitarian Worker in Amhara

We condemn in the strongest terms the kidnapping for ransom and subsequent murder of our colleague, Yared Melese, by criminals while performing his duty

A humanitarian worker hired by an Ethiopian NGO was “kidnapped for ransom and then killed by an unidentified armed criminal group,” the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported on Wednesday in the Horn of Africa country.

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“We condemn in the strongest terms the kidnapping for ransom and subsequent murder of our colleague, Yared Melese, by criminals while performing his duty,” said the UN humanitarian coordinator in Ethiopia, Ramiz Alakbarov.

The worker, who belonged to the Ethiopian NGO Action for Social Development and the Organization for Environmental Protection (ASDEPO), was, according to OCHA, kidnapped and killed by an unidentified criminal organization, but operating in the Amhara region, in the north of the country.

Alakbarov, who expressed his condolences to the family and the entire humanitarian community in Ethiopia, denounced any attack, looting or extortion as a violation of the UN Code of Conduct.

“The Code of Conduct must be respected by all concerned to ensure the safety of humanitarian workers, operations and affected communities. Humanitarian workers are not a target,” he emphasized.

The UN agency coordinator in Ethiopia warned that when humanitarian workers are attacked, the organization’s ability “to provide assistance to people in need in affected areas is seriously compromised”.

With this, OCHA recalled, there are already eight humanitarian workers killed in Ethiopia in 2024, six of them in the region of Amhara, while at least fourteen incidents of kidnapping to ask for financial ransom have been reported.