
Friday January 31, 2025

Nehima Jamal, an Ethiopian migrant who travelled to Libya in search of work, was captured and brutally tortured by human traffickers.
TORONTO, Canada (HOL) — For weeks, Nehima Jamal's image haunted the internet: a 20-year-old Ethiopian woman bound, gagged, and beaten by human traffickers in Libya, her suffering broadcast to force a ransom. Now free, she recounts the harrowing journey that brought her to the brink of death—and her warning to those considering the same path.
Jamal, whose family paid 700,000 Ethiopian Birr (about $5,546) to secure her release, was freed two days ago in a Libyan city. The money, gathered by her family back home in Ethiopia, ended weeks of brutal captivity. "I don't know what will happen next," she said, her voice trembling as she described her physical and emotional trauma. "Everything terrifies me—even making a phone call."
Jamal had left her hometown of Shashemene, in Ethiopia's Oromia region, in search of better opportunities. Enticed by a job offer from a contact in Ethiopia, she made her way through Addis Ababa and Gondar before embarking on the treacherous migration route to Libya.
But the promise of work turned into a nightmare. Two Ethiopian men who accompanied her on the journey died of dehydration in the Libyan desert. "They died from thirst and exhaustion," she said. "I didn't have the strength to bury them." Days after crossing the border in May, she fell into the hands of armed groups in the Kufra region, a known hub for migrant trafficking.
Jamal's captors forced her family to pay by sending them graphic videos and images. One video showed her with her hands and feet tied, her mouth gagged. Blood stained her clothes as she endured beatings meant to pressure her family into meeting the ransom demands.
Over 50 other migrants, many in similarly dire conditions, appeared silently in the video's background. Some were visibly malnourished, their eyes hollow from fear and exhaustion.
According to the Refugees in Libya organization, Jamal's captors initially demanded $6,000 for her release before settling on a lower amount. "The conditions were beyond horrific," Jamal said. "We were treated like nothing."
Now physically weak and emotionally drained, Jamal regrets leaving her country but does not plan to return. "I'm thinking of moving to another country if God wills," she said.
However, she warns others who are considering the same journey. "It's better to stay home," she said. "There's disease, death, and danger along the way. Many of my friends didn't survive."
Her sister, Iftu Jamal, told the BBC that Nehima had dropped out of school in 11th grade to pursue what she thought would be a brighter future abroad. Instead, she encountered traffickers who prey on desperate migrants.
Human rights groups have condemned the lack of international intervention to stop human trafficking in Libya, describing the country as a "graveyard" for African migrants, especially Black Africans fleeing poverty and conflict.
According to the Refugees in Libya organization, traffickers routinely abduct migrants, demanding ransoms and subjecting captives to physical abuse. Many never make it home.
"Libya is a death trap for many Africans," said a spokesperson for the organization. "Their lives are reduced to bargaining chips in a cruel system that preys on the vulnerable."