Mekelle፡26 May 2024 (Tigray Herald)
Resilience and recovery: Tigray emerges from the shadows of war but famine looms
The people of Tigray are emerging from the shadows of a war that left their homeland scarred and broken.
The conflict that tore through this Ethiopian region has left indelible wounds on millions of survivors.
Two years of relentless fighting between the government of Ethiopia and forces in its northern Tigray region from November 2020 has caused a humanitarian crisis of unimaginable proportions.
Children, their faces gaunt and eyes hollow with hunger, bear the brunt of this catastrophe with families plunged into the depths of malnutrition and starvation.
It is estimated that 4.5 million people need emergency food aid.
Fields once lush with crops have been reduced to barren wastelands because of drought, leaving farmers with nothing to harvest.
The spectre of famine looms large over Tigray, where everyday life is a battle against hunger and despair.
With millions of people displaced and up to 600,000 killed, communities that survived are now navigating the fragile process of recovery and rebuilding.
Despite the hardship, the resilience of the human spirit shines through.
About one million people who were forced to flee their homes amid the fighting still endure a daily struggle for survival in camps scattered across the region.
The war was primarily fought in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia between forces allied to the Ethiopian federal government and Eritrea on one side, and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front on the other.
A power struggle, an election and a push for political reform are among several factors that led to the crisis.
Many now grapple with the harsh realities of displacement, hoping to return to homes which could have been reduced to rubble because of shelling.
The Gebru family, living in a former classroom at a camp for internally displaced people (IDP) called May-weyni in Tigray’s capital Makelle, cling to memories of a life that war has torn apart.
An ethnic massacre in their farming town of Mai Kadra, near the Sudanese border, saw scores of people stabbed or hacked to death on the night of November 9 2020.
Gebrecherkos, 67, was separated from his wife Letebrhan Abadi, 48, and their six children for around three years after he fled over the border to Sudan when shelling began.
The others endured an almost year-long journey to the IDP camp – a former secondary school – with all but two members injured.
Sitting on a tattered mattress with her family, Letebrhan said: “When I fled to Shire, there was a lot of shelling. I fell down for more than four hours and was admitted to hospital. After a few days, I went to a bigger city and stayed there for 10 months before coming here. In Makelle, I was immediately admitted to a specialised hospital for six months.
“All except two family members were injured during the shelling but mine was very risky compared to the others. When we left home, we went via lorry which was targeted by shelling. Most of my kids were injured but mine was the worst.”
Letebrhan and her family sleep in an upstairs classroom they share with 17 others – a significant drop from the 39 who used to live there.
The mother, who depends on medication which is in short supply, breaks into a small smile when asked about the prospect of returning home.
Farmer Gebrecherkos said: “We saved our lives, our children. My whole family is safe now so I’m grateful. We’re not sure that our materials and home are still there. We have no information about what it looks like. If we return home, we would have many expenses.
“We do have enough knowledge on how to recreate our livelihood and continue our lives. We hope to return back but we face many challenges.
“Our materials might have been looted or destroyed. We hope to return back and recover soon but we’re grateful to have survived.”
The family, who face a daily struggle to eat enough, depends on locals from the community to bring them food.
During the war, UK-based charity Mary’s Meals paused its school feeding programme in the region and began responding to the need at IDPs across Tigray.
It provided rations to some of the 3,600 people at this camp through their partner Daughters of Charity.
The organisations have since ramped up their efforts and expect to be feeding around 114,000 children every day at 223 schools across Tigray by the end of this month.
Like many children across the region, the Gebru youngsters have been haunted by the relentless sights and sounds of warfare.
Letebrhan said: “All of my children have been traumatised by the shellings and war. Mokonati was the first affected, especially at night. He kept repeating ‘my father is dead’ but his father was in Sudan.
“He assumed he had died. He was fearing sounds around the IDP but most have been impacted by trauma. Mokonati was highly affected. I have been receiving mental health and psychosocial support at the IDP. I need a lot of medicine but cannot access it.”
Gebrecherkos, repeatedly waved his hand to swat away persistent flies that buzzed around in the muggy room, added: “My family assumed I was dead.”
Football kit-clad Mokonati, 13, listens to his parents recount their experiences beside his sisters Brinesh, 20, Azemra, 16, and brother Niqus, five.
They all attend lessons based in two classrooms at the camp, as do their older siblings Shiwendem, 25, and Mebrat, 23.
Mokonati said: “When I finish my education, I want to help my family when I finish school because they help me a lot now. Tigrinya is my favourite subject. I have lots of friends – more than 60. We play football together.”
The grade six student left the room, which contained stacks of sacks with US Aid labelling, to join his friends at a barren ground behind the building block to play football.
Residents hope that ultraviolet rays from the sun will scorch their colourful sheets and frayed mattresses draped over the school’s railings.
Bed bugs are a chief complaint among people residing at this refuge – even more so than hunger for some.
The hope is that the international community will once again wrap its arms around the nation as it did during the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia.
The £114million raised from LiveAid, organised by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure, went towards saving thousands of lives.
Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, founder and CEO of Mary’s Meals, said: “With millions of people in need of food aid and the region afflicted by an ongoing drought, there is talk of a famine being imminent.
“It sounds like a place devoid of hope, but I recently witnessed what could only be described as an explosion of joy when I visited a school where our meals are being served.
“Children who have lived through years of fear, trauma, uncertainty, and the pain of hunger are now reunited with their friends – learning, playing, and eating together at school.
“Being able to rely on a daily meal is nothing short of life-changing – and often life-saving – for children whose whole existence has been thrown into question by the devastation around them.”
Welday Meresa described how brutal beatings by soldiers during Tigray’s war has left him with lifelong injuries.
The 77-year-old points to his groin while speaking from inside the May-weni centre for internally displaced people in Makelle.
He said: “We were being beaten in such a brutal way that I got a hernia and now cannot control my urine.
“For the last four years, I have been going to doctors but they haven’t done anything. I’m still facing the problem.
“When war broke out, I was among the first imprisoned. They were beating others in prison with me too.”
The former farmer, dressed smartly in a grey suit and shirt, said he lost his livelihood during the conflict.
He now shares a mattress with four others, including his 65-year-old wife Yayesh Desta, in a bedbug-infested former classroom.
Welday, from Humera, added: “We were in a stall without toilets. We were imprisoned for two months and beaten up. I lost my livelihood. They took me from a field where I was tending my cows and took me and so many others. We weren’t able to go to the toilet. For a number of days, we would be without food.
“I arrived here four years ago. I’m among those who came first because my home was occupied immediately. I have left such a beautiful house of our own behind. We were well off. I was imprisoned for two months first because I’m Tigrayan.”
When asked where he gets food from, he said: “The healthy family members go into the city to beg and bring food back for the others at night. The bugs bite as in the day and at night. Worse than our hunger is bed bugs. We never ever sleep at night.”
Before reading about our work in The Express, some of you may never have heard of Mary’s Meals and our community run school feeding programmes.
But, when we told you about the many children who have more energy and more hope for the future because they receive a simple daily meal in school, you responded with beautiful generosity at Christmas.
I am so thankful for each of you who chose to give some of what you have at a time when many of us are feeling the pressure of rising costs.
And for those who weren’t in a position to give but perhaps took the time to tell someone about or work or share news of our campaign, I am so thankful for your gift too.
Our meals are having a positive impact on children in 17 countries around the world, but for the last few months my thoughts keep coming back to one country in particular: Ethiopia.
I recently shared with you that we’d launched a campaign to expand our work in Tigray, the region of Ethiopia that built itself back up after the infamous famine of the 1980s, only to be destroyed again by a brutal two-year war.
Despite all they have been through, the Tigrayan people are determined to rebuild again, rejecting any hint of victim mentality.
In my time there, I met proud people keeping faith for a better future and continuing to share what little they have with those around them.
With millions of people in need of food aid and the region afflicted by an ongoing drought, there is talk of a famine being imminent. It sounds like a place devoid of hope, but I recently witnessed what could only be described as an explosion of joy when I visited a school where our meals are being served.
Children who have lived through years of fear, trauma, uncertainty, and the pain of hunger are now reunited with their friends – learning, playing, and eating together at school.
Being able to rely on a daily meal is nothing short of life-changing – and often life-saving – for children whose whole existence has been thrown into question by the devastation around them.
Thanks to the amazing generosity of those who support us, and the incredible efforts of our local partner and the communities who help deliver the programme, more than 45,000 children in Tigray are already receiving these much-needed meals.
We are ready to expand further to bring joy and hope back to many more classrooms and playgrounds in Tigray.
Will you help people in Tigray to rebuild their lives once again? Whether you choose to donate or simply talk about our work, thank you for taking action to help children and communities who have already gone through so much.
Source፡https://www.express.co.uk