Beware: Streets Aren't Safe

Oct 15 , 2022
By Kidist Yidnekachew

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One of the nights last week, I had to go to the shop. Only a few minutes had passed since 8pm. I did not feel safe after what happened to my husband a few days ago.

He was mugged. It happened in the neighbourhood where we had lived for years. My husband is a foreign national who has lived in Ethiopia for much of his life. He has never felt threatened. Sometimes he walked long distances at night with his friends and enjoyed the breezy, fresh air, but nothing had happened to him before.

Imagine his surprise when he found himself lying on the floor, regaining consciousness after being attacked by a group of thugs. Stories of someone getting mugged in public, even in broad daylight, are not uncommon. They have patterns. I recently heard robbers took their victims' dental braces and human hair.

Isn't that strange?

The problem is that we never think it would happen to someone close to us until it does.

My husband was walking home from his office; a five minutes walk in between. Suddenly, a car pulled up in front of him. Feeling suspicious, he started to cross the road. At that moment, a man came from behind, grabbed and knocked him down on the ground. He lost consciousness and woke up after a while to realise what had happened. They took everything he had with him.

The irony is that bystanders were there watching him lie down the whole time. People these days tend to stand aside and watch from a distance than lend a hand—the more people present at the scene of an incident, the less likely anyone offers to help.

A police patrol car came to the spot, and one of the police officers approached my husband. The officer reassured my husband that they were going to follow the vehicle. Unfortunately, the car did not even have a licence plate. They gave my husband a phone number to follow up. But nothing has changed.

There might be a justification for why robbers do what they do, but as long as they get what they come for, they do not care. Here I would say to be careful; the streets are not safe.

After that incident, we no longer accept the value of the security. To that, the best we can do is to protect ourselves, even if that means hiding in fear or not being able to have the freedom to move around as before. It is better to be safe than to become sorry. Not long ago, we heard stories of ride service drivers killed by robbers pretending to be passengers.

The saddest part is that only a few get lucky in such adversities. As it turns out, stealing would not be enough; the thieves have to finish the job and take the lives of those they steal from. Our friends and families say how lucky my husband was that the thieves somehow did not hurt him. I understand that losing material possessions can be recoverable. It is just a matter of time. If we cannot get the items stolen from us, we can find something else as long as we are alive.

But life is taken, and there is nothing we can do about it. It could have been worse, but it did not. And for that, my family is grateful.

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PUBLISHED ON Oct 15,2022 [ VOL 23 , NO 1172]

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