{"id":975,"date":"2021-04-07T16:20:07","date_gmt":"2021-04-07T16:20:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news25.org\/?p=975"},"modified":"2021-04-07T16:20:07","modified_gmt":"2021-04-07T16:20:07","slug":"leave-no-tigrayan-in-ethiopia-an-ethnicity-is-erased","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.news25.org\/leave-no-tigrayan-in-ethiopia-an-ethnicity-is-erased\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Leave no Tigrayan\u2019: In Ethiopia, an ethnicity is erased"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\"><em>By CARA ANNA<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">HAMDAYET, Sudan (AP) \u2014 The atrocities have been seared into the skin and the minds of Tigrayans, who take shelter by the thousands within sight of the homeland they fled in northern Ethiopia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">They arrive in heat that soars above 38 C (100 F), carrying the pain of gunshot wounds, torn vaginas, welts on beaten backs. Less visible are the horrors that jolt them awake at night: Memories of dozens of bodies strewn on riverbanks. Fighters raping a woman one by one for speaking her own language. A child, weakened by hunger, left behind.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">Now, for the first time, they also bring proof of an official attempt at what is being called ethnic cleansing in the form of a new identity card that eliminates all traces of Tigray, as confirmed to The Associated Press by nine refugees from different communities. Written in a language not their own, issued by authorities from another ethnic group, the ID cards are the latest evidence of a systematic drive by the Ethiopian government and its allies to destroy the Tigrayan people.<\/p>\n<div id=\"se0:e10c8430-7c50-11eb-ad8c-1dd8319fdeb7\" class=\"social-embed Component-embed-0-2-52 alignFull-0-2-17\">\n<div class=\"Component-root-0-2-54 Component-root-0-0-2-56\"><iframe class=\"Component-player-0-2-55\" title=\"Vimeo video\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/532332953?background=1\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div class=\"Component-root-0-2-54 Component-root-0-0-2-56\"><em>IMAGE COPYRIGHT\/ AFP\/ This graphic shows the new identity cards that eliminate traces of Tigray, as confirmed to The Associated Press by nine refugees from different communities. (AP Graphic\/Peter Hamlin, Photos Nariman El-Mofty)<\/em><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p class=\"social-caption Component-root-0-2-128 Component-caption-0-2-53 caption-0-2-22\">\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">The Amhara authorities now in charge of the nearby city of Humera took Seid Mussa Omar\u2019s original ID card displaying his Tigrayan identity and burned it, the soft-spoken nurse said. On his new card examined by the AP, issued in January with the Amharic language, an Amhara stamp and a border of tiny hearts, even the word Tigray had vanished.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">\u201cI kept it to show the world,\u201d Seid said. He added that only 10 Tigrayans remained of the roughly 400 who worked at the hospital where he had been employed, the rest killed or fleeing. \u201cThis is genocide \u2026 Their aim is to erase Tigray.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"image-0-2-14 wrapper-0-2-58\" data-key=\"media-placeholder\">\n<figure style=\"width: 2000px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a class=\"gallery-0-2-60 galleryModal-0-2-132\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/world-news-sudan-ethiopia-only-on-ap-842741eebf9bf0984946619c0fc15023\/gallery\/f9e248378e334db29559677204bd213b\" data-key=\"media-placeholder\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"image-0-2-137 image-0-2-62\" src=\"https:\/\/storage.googleapis.com\/afs-prod\/media\/f9e248378e334db29559677204bd213b\/2000.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">IMAGE COPYRIGHT\/ AFP\/ \u00a0This March 23, 2021 photo shows the area at the Sudan-Ethiopia border. (AP Photo\/Nariman El-Mofty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"embed-caption Component-root-0-2-135 caption-0-2-64\" data-key=\"embed-caption\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">What started as a political dispute in one of Africa\u2019s most powerful and populous countries has turned into a campaign of ethnic cleansing against minority Tigrayans, according to AP interviews with 30 refugees in Sudan and dozens more by phone, along with international experts. The Ethiopian government of Nobel Peace Prize winner Abiy Ahmed is accused of teaming up with his ethnic group \u2014 his mother was Amhara \u2014 and soldiers from neighboring Eritrea to punish around 6 million people. Witnesses say they have split much of Tigray between them, with the Amhara in the west and Eritrean forces in the east.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">Ethiopia claims that life in Tigray is returning to normal, and Abiy has called the conflict \u201ctiresome.\u201d But the refugees the AP spoke with, including some who arrived just hours before, said abuses were still occurring. Almost all described killings, often of multiple people, rapes and the looting and burning of crops that without massive food aid could tip the region into starvation.<\/p>\n<div class=\"image-0-2-14 alignLeft-0-2-15 wrapper-0-2-58\" data-key=\"media-placeholder\">\n<figure style=\"width: 1920px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a class=\"gallery-0-2-60 galleryModal-0-2-132\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/world-news-sudan-ethiopia-only-on-ap-842741eebf9bf0984946619c0fc15023\/gallery\/afs:Medium:10063992842\" data-key=\"media-placeholder\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"image-0-2-137 image-0-2-62\" src=\"https:\/\/storage.googleapis.com\/afs-prod\/media\/afs:Medium:10063992842\/1920.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">IMAGE COPYRIGHT\/ AFP\/ Satellite image from late November provided by Planet Labs Inc. show a field of crops that was burned near the Hitsats refugee camp in northern Tigray, near Ethiopia\u2019s border with Eritrea. (AP via Planet Labs)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"embed-caption Component-root-0-2-135 caption-0-2-64\" data-key=\"embed-caption\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"image-0-2-14 alignRight-0-2-16 wrapper-0-2-58\" data-key=\"media-placeholder\">\n<figure style=\"width: 1920px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a class=\"gallery-0-2-60 galleryModal-0-2-132\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/world-news-sudan-ethiopia-only-on-ap-842741eebf9bf0984946619c0fc15023\/gallery\/afs:Medium:10033601705\" data-key=\"media-placeholder\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"image-0-2-137 image-0-2-62\" src=\"https:\/\/storage.googleapis.com\/afs-prod\/media\/afs:Medium:10033601705\/1920.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">IMAGE COPYRIGHT\/ AFP\/ Satellite image from late November provided by Planet Labs Inc. show a field of crops that was burned near the Hitsats refugee camp in northern Tigray, near Ethiopia\u2019s border with Eritrea. (AP via Planet Labs)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"embed-caption Component-root-0-2-135 caption-0-2-64\" data-key=\"embed-caption\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">This story was funded by a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">For months, the people of Tigray have been largely sealed off from the world, with electricity and telecommunication access severed and mobile phones often seized, leaving little to backup their claims of thousands, even tens of thousands, killed. That has begun to change.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/news25.org\/inner-light-the-children-surviving-conflict-in-dr-congo\/\">Inner Light: The children surviving conflict in DR Congo<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/news25.org\/nearly-28-tons-of-cocaine-seized-after-police-access-encrypted-network\/\">Nearly 28 tons of cocaine seized after police access encrypted network<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken asserted last month that \u201cethnic cleansing\u201d has taken place in western Tigray, marking the first time a top official in the international community has openly described the situation as such. The term refers to forcing a population from a region through expulsions and other violence, often including killings and rapes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">Refugees told the AP that Amhara authorities and allied forces in western Tigray have taken over whole communities, ordering Tigrayans out or rounding them up. A refugee from Humera, Goitom Hagos, said he saw thousands of Tigrayans loaded into trucks and doesn\u2019t know what happened to them.<\/p>\n<div class=\"image-0-2-14 wrapper-0-2-58\" data-key=\"media-placeholder\">\n<figure style=\"width: 2000px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a class=\"gallery-0-2-60 galleryModal-0-2-132\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/world-news-sudan-ethiopia-only-on-ap-842741eebf9bf0984946619c0fc15023\/gallery\/b50c128ba23540f9844185192f994cc0\" data-key=\"media-placeholder\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"image-0-2-137 image-0-2-62\" src=\"https:\/\/storage.googleapis.com\/afs-prod\/media\/b50c128ba23540f9844185192f994cc0\/2000.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">IMAGE COPYRIGHT\/ AFP\/ Tigrayan refugee Goitom Hagos, a 26-year-old nurse from Humera who fled the conflict in Ethiopia&#8217;s Tigray, is photographed in eastern Sudan near the Sudan-Ethiopia border, on March 18, 2021. (AP Photo\/Nariman El-Mofty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"embed-caption Component-root-0-2-135 caption-0-2-64\" data-key=\"embed-caption\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"image-0-2-14 alignLeft-0-2-15 wrapper-0-2-58\" data-key=\"media-placeholder\">\n<figure style=\"width: 2000px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a class=\"gallery-0-2-60 galleryModal-0-2-132\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/world-news-sudan-ethiopia-only-on-ap-842741eebf9bf0984946619c0fc15023\/gallery\/4ac530236fca4f8ebf73fa84d44e9d73\" data-key=\"media-placeholder\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"image-0-2-137 image-0-2-62\" src=\"https:\/\/storage.googleapis.com\/afs-prod\/media\/4ac530236fca4f8ebf73fa84d44e9d73\/2000.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">IMAGE COPYRIGHT\/ AFP\/ Fisseha Welay, an 18-year-old Tigrayan student who fled the conflict in Ethiopia&#8217;s Tigray, shows the wounds on his back from being beaten by Eritrean soldiers, hours after his arrival to Hamdayet, eastern Sudan, near the border with Ethiopia, on March 17, 2021. (AP Photo\/Nariman El-Mofty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"embed-caption Component-root-0-2-135 caption-0-2-64\" data-key=\"embed-caption\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"image-0-2-14 alignRight-0-2-16 wrapper-0-2-58\" data-key=\"media-placeholder\">\n<figure style=\"width: 2000px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a class=\"gallery-0-2-60 galleryModal-0-2-132\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/world-news-sudan-ethiopia-only-on-ap-842741eebf9bf0984946619c0fc15023\/gallery\/afs:Medium:10062210041\" data-key=\"media-placeholder\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"image-0-2-137 image-0-2-62\" src=\"https:\/\/storage.googleapis.com\/afs-prod\/media\/afs:Medium:10062210041\/2000.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">IMAGE COPYRIGHT\/ AFP\/ Tigrayan 24-year-old farmer Berhane Gebrewahid, who fled the conflict in Ethiopia&#8217;s Tigray, shows his gunshot wound by Amhara and Wolkait fighters seeking his cattle, near the Sudan-Ethiopia border, eastern Sudan, March 14, 2021. (AP Photo\/Nariman El-Mofty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"embed-caption Component-root-0-2-135 caption-0-2-64\" data-key=\"embed-caption\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">The Amhara now control some government offices in western Tigray and decide who belongs \u2014 and even whether Tigrayans exist at all. Some were ordered to accept the Amhara identity or leave, and others were told to leave anyway, the refugees said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">Lemlem Gebrehiwet was forced to flee while heavily pregnant and gave birth three days after reaching Sudan. She recalled the new authorities telling her, \u201cThis is Amhara.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">Shy, her baby girl waiting, she struggled to comprehend. \u201cMaybe we did something wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">Seid, the nurse, fled Humera early in the conflict after his hospital came under heavy shelling, with the wounded carried in screaming and colleagues killed. He returned in January in the hope that conditions had improved, as Abiy\u2019s government promised.<\/p>\n<div class=\"image-0-2-14 wrapper-0-2-58\" data-key=\"media-placeholder\">\n<figure style=\"width: 2000px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a class=\"gallery-0-2-60 galleryModal-0-2-132\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/world-news-sudan-ethiopia-only-on-ap-842741eebf9bf0984946619c0fc15023\/gallery\/1897ab88539f4851a935ed979854ca54\" data-key=\"media-placeholder\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"image-0-2-137 image-0-2-62\" src=\"https:\/\/storage.googleapis.com\/afs-prod\/media\/1897ab88539f4851a935ed979854ca54\/2000.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">IMAGE COPYRIGHT\/ AFP\/ Seid Mussa Omar, a 29-year-old Tigrayan nurse from Humera, treats a man at the Sudanese Red Crescent clinic, in Hamdayet, eastern Sudan, near the border with Ethiopia, on March 17, 2021. (AP Photo\/Nariman El-Mofty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>They hadn\u2019t. His home had been looted, and the remaining Tigrayans had shrunk to a quiet population of the elderly, women and children who were discouraged from speaking their own language, Tigrinya.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">At the hospital, Tigrayans had to pay for care, unlike the Amhara. Anyone who came was allowed to speak Amharic only. Tigrayan staffers weren\u2019t paid, and every night there was gunfire.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">Ten days after returning to the hospital, Seid left for Sudan. Now, at this dusty post, refugees pass blazing days sprawled on plastic mats under shelters of woven straw. They stay perilously close to the border in the hope that missing loved ones will emerge from Tigray.<\/p>\n<div id=\"se1:475339a0-7c50-11eb-dc6f-257c8651673e\" class=\"social-embed Component-embed-0-2-52 block-0-2-11\"><iframe id=\"datawrapper-chart-7ocXT\" class=\"Component-iframe-0-2-71 Component-iframe-0-0-2-72\" title=\"Data Wrapper Interactive\" src=\"https:\/\/interactives.ap.org\/embeds\/7ocXT\/9\/\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">The conflict began in November as a political clash of past and present, with all of Ethiopia arguably at stake.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">Tigray leaders had dominated the country\u2019s government for nearly three decades, creating a system of ethnic-based regional states. But when Abiy took office in 2018, he moved to centralize power. He sidelined the Tigray leaders and made peace with Eritrea after years of war, earning a Nobel Peace Prize.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">After last year\u2019s election was delayed, the defiant Tigray leaders viewed Abiy\u2019s mandate as illegal and held their own vote. The government then opened a military offensive, saying Tigray forces had attacked a military base.<\/p>\n<div class=\"image-0-2-14 wrapper-0-2-58\" data-key=\"media-placeholder\">\n<figure style=\"width: 2000px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a class=\"gallery-0-2-60 galleryModal-0-2-132\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/world-news-sudan-ethiopia-only-on-ap-842741eebf9bf0984946619c0fc15023\/gallery\/aee68ba8ed04467d877fb5137552ddea\" data-key=\"media-placeholder\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"image-0-2-137 image-0-2-62\" src=\"https:\/\/storage.googleapis.com\/afs-prod\/media\/aee68ba8ed04467d877fb5137552ddea\/2000.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">IMAGE COPYRIGHT\/ AFP\/ Tigrayan refugees who fled the conflict in the Ethiopia&#8217;s Tigray gather after the sun sets in Hamdayet, eastern Sudan, near the border with Ethiopia, on March 23, 2021. (AP Photo\/Nariman El-Mofty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"embed-caption Component-root-0-2-135 caption-0-2-64\" data-key=\"embed-caption\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">\u201cThe federal government is trying to be king. We Tigrayans refuse,\u201d said one refugee, Nega Chekole.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">In response to allegations that the Amhara are ordering Tigrayans to leave and issuing new ID cards, the spokeswoman for the prime minister\u2019s office, Billene Seyoum, said the area is under a provisional administration \u201cwho are all from the region.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">The Ethiopian government says it rejects \u201cany and all notions and practices of ethnic cleansing\u201d and will never tolerate such practices, \u201cnor will it turn a blind eye to such crimes.\u201d However, almost everyone the AP interviewed said they had watched fellow Tigrayans being killed or seen bodies on the ground.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">In her town of more than a dozen ethnic groups, Belaynesh Beyene was dealt a ghastly lesson in just how little Tigrayans suddenly were worth.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">In the early days of the fighting, she said she saw 24 bodies in the streets of Dansha in western Tigray. The 58-year-old grandmother and other residents were prevented from burying them by the Amhara youth militia, a practice that witnesses across Tigray have reported as an added insult to grief. The practice applies only to Tigrayan corpses.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">\u201cThey accidentally killed an ethnic Oromo in a Tigrayan household,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen they realized their \u2018mistake,\u2019 they came and buried him.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"image-0-2-14 wrapper-0-2-58\" data-key=\"media-placeholder\">\n<figure style=\"width: 2000px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a class=\"gallery-0-2-60 galleryModal-0-2-132\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/world-news-sudan-ethiopia-only-on-ap-842741eebf9bf0984946619c0fc15023\/gallery\/ad32b5c327fa4dfa859c0f1ec5ff3946\" data-key=\"media-placeholder\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"image-0-2-137 image-0-2-62\" src=\"https:\/\/storage.googleapis.com\/afs-prod\/media\/ad32b5c327fa4dfa859c0f1ec5ff3946\/2000.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">IMAGE COPYRIGHT\/ AFP\/ Tigrayan refugee Belaynesh Beyene, 58, who fled the conflict in the Ethiopia&#8217;s Tigray, sits in her shelter in Hamdayet, eastern Sudan, near the border with Ethiopia, on March 13, 2021. (AP Photo\/Nariman El-Mofty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">A spokesman for the Amhara regional government, Gizachew Muluneh, didn\u2019t answer questions from the AP. The Amhara have said they are taking back land they claim belongs to them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">Soldiers from Eritrea, long an enemy of Tigray\u2019s now-fugitive leaders, have also been blamed for some of the worst human rights abuses. Under pressure, Abiy said last month the soldiers will leave, after long denying their presence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">Hiwot Hadush, a teacher from Zalambessa, said scores of people were killed after the Eritreans went house to house, opening fire.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">\u201cEven if someone was dead, they shot them again, dozens of times. I saw this,\u201d she said. \u201cI saw many bodies, even priests. They killed all Tigrayans.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">In another border community, Irob, furniture maker Awalom Mebrahtom described hiding and watching Eritrean soldiers order 18 Tigrayans, mostly young men like him, to lie in a remote field. They were shot to death.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">The killings continue. In early March, after months on the run, 30-year-old Alem Mebrahtu attempted a desperate crossing of the Tekeze river. Separated from her three small children in the early chaos of the conflict, she had heard they were in Sudan.<\/p>\n<div class=\"image-0-2-14 wrapper-0-2-58\" data-key=\"media-placeholder\">\n<figure style=\"width: 2000px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a class=\"gallery-0-2-60 galleryModal-0-2-132\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/world-news-sudan-ethiopia-only-on-ap-842741eebf9bf0984946619c0fc15023\/gallery\/7cea9011e2fb4a2aa960da4975ac5a12\" data-key=\"media-placeholder\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"image-0-2-137 image-0-2-62\" src=\"https:\/\/storage.googleapis.com\/afs-prod\/media\/7cea9011e2fb4a2aa960da4975ac5a12\/2000.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">IMAGE COPYRIGHT\/ AFP\/ Tigrayan refugee Alem Mebrahtu, 30, who fled the conflict in Ethiopia&#8217;s Tigray, sits for a portrait in eastern Sudan, near the border with Ethiopia, on March 15, 2021. (AP Photo\/Nariman El-Mofty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"embed-caption Component-root-0-2-135 caption-0-2-64\" data-key=\"embed-caption\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">Sympathetic women from the Wolkait ethnic group pleaded with Eritrean soldiers near the river to let Alem cross, while urging her to pretend to be Wolkait, too. It worked, but she saw a grim reminder of what could have happened if she had failed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">Bodies lay scattered near the riverbank, she said. She estimated around 50 corpses.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">\u201cSome were face-down. Some were looking up at the sky,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">Exhaustion still pressed deep under her eyes, Alem started to cry. There by the river, confronted with death, tears hadn\u2019t been allowed. The Eritrean soldiers beat people for expressing grief, she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">Samrawit Weldegerima, who had arrived just two weeks earlier in Hamdayet, also saw corpses by the river, counting seven. Freshly branded on their temples were the markings some Tigrayans have to express their identity, she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">\u201cWhen I saw them, I was terrified,\u201d Samrawit said, touching her belly, six months pregnant. \u201cI thought I was already dead.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"image-0-2-14 wrapper-0-2-58\" data-key=\"media-placeholder\">\n<figure style=\"width: 2000px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a class=\"gallery-0-2-60 galleryModal-0-2-132\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/world-news-sudan-ethiopia-only-on-ap-842741eebf9bf0984946619c0fc15023\/gallery\/af2aeaa706bb4ac5947ec645509141fd\" data-key=\"media-placeholder\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"image-0-2-137 image-0-2-62\" src=\"https:\/\/storage.googleapis.com\/afs-prod\/media\/af2aeaa706bb4ac5947ec645509141fd\/2000.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">IMAGE COPYRIGHT\/ AFP\/ People stand on the banks of the Tekeze River, on the Sudan-Ethiopia border after Ethiopian forces blocked individuals from crossing into Sudan, near Hamdayet, eastern Sudan, on March 16, 2021. (AP Photo\/Nariman El-Mofty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"embed-caption Component-root-0-2-135 caption-0-2-64\" data-key=\"embed-caption\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">Those who crossed the river were amazed to find that the Amhara were now in charge in western Tigray. Alem\u2019s home in Humera was occupied by Amhara militia. She asked them for her clothes, but they had been burned. She was told to get out.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">Reluctantly, to protect herself, she is trying to learn Amharic.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">\u201cTheir aim is to leave no Tigrayan,\u201d she said. \u201cI hope there will be a Tigray for my children to go home to.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">The idea of home remains dangerous. Days after Abiy urged people in Tigray to return in late March, at least two men trying to do so from Hamdayet were fatally shot within sight of the border crossing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">They were buried by hundreds of refugees at the Orthodox church in Hamdayet, where the blank walls are being mapped for murals of sacrifice and salvation. Some of the faithful drop to their knees and clutch the stones, deep in prayer. Others rest their foreheads against the entrance, as if they can\u2019t go on.<\/p>\n<div class=\"image-0-2-14 wrapper-0-2-58\" data-key=\"media-placeholder\">\n<figure style=\"width: 1500px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a class=\"gallery-0-2-60 galleryModal-0-2-132\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/world-news-sudan-ethiopia-only-on-ap-842741eebf9bf0984946619c0fc15023\/gallery\/afs:Medium:10003558541\" data-key=\"media-placeholder\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"image-0-2-137 image-0-2-62\" src=\"https:\/\/storage.googleapis.com\/afs-prod\/media\/afs:Medium:10003558541\/1500.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1500\" height=\"1000\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">IMAGE COPYRIGHT\/ AFP\/ Tigrayan refugee Samrawit Weldegerima, 24, sits in her shelter in Hamdayet near the Sudan-Ethiopia border, eastern Sudan, March 18, 2021. (AP Photo\/Nariman El-Mofty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">Even as the Amhara fighters took turns raping her, they offered the young woman a twisted path to what they considered redemption.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">She had returned to her looted home in Humera. There, she was seized by militia members speaking Amharic. When she asked them to speak her native Tigrinya, which she understood far better, they became angry and started kicking her.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">She fell, and they fell upon her. She remembers at least three men.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">\u201cLet the Tigray government come and help you,\u201d she recalled them saying.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">They also made her a proposal: \u201cClaim to be Amhara and we\u2019ll give you back your house and find you a husband. But if you claim to be Tigrayan, we will come and rape you again.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">The woman\u2019s Amhara neighbor was present during the attack. When she later approached him for help, there was none.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">\u201cSo what?\u201d she recalled him saying. \u201cYou came back. Behave and be quiet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">The woman cried all night. The next day, she found little comfort in learning that many others in her neighborhood had been raped, too.<\/p>\n<div class=\"image-0-2-14 alignRight-0-2-16 wrapper-0-2-58\" data-key=\"media-placeholder\">\n<figure style=\"width: 2000px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a class=\"gallery-0-2-60 galleryModal-0-2-132\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/world-news-sudan-ethiopia-only-on-ap-842741eebf9bf0984946619c0fc15023\/gallery\/e666fd39d2344d6ea4598ee8d34faed8\" data-key=\"media-placeholder\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"image-0-2-137 image-0-2-62\" src=\"https:\/\/storage.googleapis.com\/afs-prod\/media\/e666fd39d2344d6ea4598ee8d34faed8\/2000.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">IMAGE COPYRIGHT\/ AFP\/ A Tigrayan refugee rape victim who fled the conflict in Ethiopia&#8217;s Tigray sits for a portrait in eastern Sudan near the Sudan-Ethiopia border, on March 20, 2021. (AP Photo\/Nariman El-Mofty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"embed-caption Component-root-0-2-135 caption-0-2-64\" data-key=\"embed-caption\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"image-0-2-14 alignLeft-0-2-15 wrapper-0-2-58\" data-key=\"media-placeholder\">\n<figure style=\"width: 2000px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a class=\"gallery-0-2-60 galleryModal-0-2-132\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/world-news-sudan-ethiopia-only-on-ap-842741eebf9bf0984946619c0fc15023\/gallery\/226180a3786f4bd2b4822592afd40839\" data-key=\"media-placeholder\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"image-0-2-137 image-0-2-62\" src=\"https:\/\/storage.googleapis.com\/afs-prod\/media\/226180a3786f4bd2b4822592afd40839\/2000.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">IMAGE COPYRIGHT\/ AFP\/ A Tigrayan woman who says she was gang raped by Amhara fighters, stands for a portrait in eastern Sudan, near the border with Ethiopia, on March 23, 2021. (AP Photo\/Nariman El-Mofty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"embed-caption Component-root-0-2-135 caption-0-2-64\" data-key=\"embed-caption\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">\u201cOne mother and daughter had been forced to watch each other,\u201d she said. \u201cOne woman was raped on the road, with people watching. Other accounts were worse than mine.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">She left for Sudan. It was mid-February. Afraid to speak with anyone, she waited almost a month before seeking medical care.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">\u201cI was ashamed,\u201d she said, and started to cry. She watched the doorway warily, fearing the rumors that can spread among the refugees.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">She said she was grateful to be HIV-negative, but she is pregnant. For a long moment, she was silent. She can hardly think about that yet. Her family back home doesn\u2019t know.<\/p>\n<div class=\"image-0-2-14 wrapper-0-2-58\" data-key=\"media-placeholder\">\n<figure style=\"width: 2000px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a class=\"gallery-0-2-60 galleryModal-0-2-132\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/world-news-sudan-ethiopia-only-on-ap-842741eebf9bf0984946619c0fc15023\/gallery\/803e4e78f041405897d4af12a227a23b\" data-key=\"media-placeholder\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"image-0-2-137 image-0-2-62\" src=\"https:\/\/storage.googleapis.com\/afs-prod\/media\/803e4e78f041405897d4af12a227a23b\/2000.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">IMAGE COPYRIGHT\/ AFP\/ Lemlem Gebrehiwet, a 20-year-old Tigrayan refugee, holds her 3-day-old daughter, Semhal, in their shelter in Hamdayet, eastern Sudan, near the border with Ethiopia, on March 16, 2021. (AP Photo\/Nariman El-Mofty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"embed-caption Component-root-0-2-135 caption-0-2-64\" data-key=\"embed-caption\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">The United Nations has said more than 500 rapes in Tigray have been reported to health care workers. But the woman from Humera, whose account was confirmed by her doctor, assumes many more survivors are hiding it just as she did. The AP doesn\u2019t name people who have been sexually abused.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">Several refugees from different Tigray communities told the AP they watched or listened helplessly as women were taken away by Amhara or Eritrean fighters and raped. It was like taunting, said Adhanom Gebrehanis from Korarit village, who had just arrived in Hamdayet with the welts from a beating by Eritrean soldiers on his back.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">\u201cThey do these things openly to make us ashamed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">He described watching Eritreans pull aside 20 women from a group of Tigrayans and rape them. The next day, 13 of the women were returned.<\/p>\n<div class=\"image-0-2-14 wrapper-0-2-58\" data-key=\"media-placeholder\">\n<figure style=\"width: 2000px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a class=\"gallery-0-2-60 galleryModal-0-2-132\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/world-news-sudan-ethiopia-only-on-ap-842741eebf9bf0984946619c0fc15023\/gallery\/091b6455112b4e30a1a6d3edf3892e2a\" data-key=\"media-placeholder\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"image-0-2-137 image-0-2-62\" src=\"https:\/\/storage.googleapis.com\/afs-prod\/media\/091b6455112b4e30a1a6d3edf3892e2a\/2000.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">IMAGE COPYRIGHT\/ AFP\/ Adhanom Gebrehanis, a 20-year-old Tigrayan refugee from Korarit village, shows the welts on his back from a beating by Eritrean soldiers, after a checkup at the Sudanese Red Crescent clinic shortly after his arrival in Hamdayet, eastern Sudan, near the border with Ethiopia, on March 18, 2021. (AP Photo\/Nariman El-Mofty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"embed-caption Component-root-0-2-135 caption-0-2-64\" data-key=\"embed-caption\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">\u201cGo,\u201d Adhanom said the Eritreans told the others. \u201cWe already have what we want.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">A midwife from Adwa, Elsa Tesfa Berhe, described treating women secretly after Eritrean soldiers swept through health centers, looting even the beds and telling patients to leave. As Berhe snuck out to deliver babies and care for the wounded, she saw people trying to bury bodies at the risk of being shot, or pouring alcohol on corpses in an attempt to hide the smell.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">With the health centers destroyed, little if any care remains for women and girls who have been raped. No one knows how many now carry the children of their attackers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">Berhe had just arrived in Sudan. She cried as she recalled a 60-year-old woman who was raped vaginally and anally by Eritrean soldiers and then waited for days, trying to hide the bleeding, before seeking help.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">\u201cShe didn\u2019t want to tell anyone,\u201d Berhe said. She heard the woman ask, \u201cCan anyone trust me if I say I was raped?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">Another woman was raped by four Eritrean soldiers while her husband hid under the bed, Berhe said. Her husband recounted the attack when they sought an abortion.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">A third woman described how Eritrean soldiers ordered her father to rape her, then shot and killed him when he refused. The soldiers raped her instead.<\/p>\n<div class=\"image-0-2-14 alignLeft-0-2-15 wrapper-0-2-58\" data-key=\"media-placeholder\">\n<figure style=\"width: 2000px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a class=\"gallery-0-2-60 galleryModal-0-2-132\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/world-news-sudan-ethiopia-only-on-ap-842741eebf9bf0984946619c0fc15023\/gallery\/84a4974997374f29bed60399a5b0fad4\" data-key=\"media-placeholder\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"image-0-2-137 image-0-2-62\" src=\"https:\/\/storage.googleapis.com\/afs-prod\/media\/84a4974997374f29bed60399a5b0fad4\/2000.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">IMAGE COPYRIGHT\/ AFP\/ Elsa Tesfa Berhe, 26, center, a reproductive health official from Adwa, sits on a bench hours after arriving from Humera to Hamdayet, eastern Sudan, near the border with Ethiopia, on March 15, 2021. (AP Photo\/Nariman El-Mofty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"embed-caption Component-root-0-2-135 caption-0-2-64\" data-key=\"embed-caption\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"image-0-2-14 alignRight-0-2-16 wrapper-0-2-58\" data-key=\"media-placeholder\">\n<figure style=\"width: 2000px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a class=\"gallery-0-2-60 galleryModal-0-2-132\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/world-news-sudan-ethiopia-only-on-ap-842741eebf9bf0984946619c0fc15023\/gallery\/d80e54a71fe84cf5bcbaff3e87b6be9a\" data-key=\"media-placeholder\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"image-0-2-137 image-0-2-62\" src=\"https:\/\/storage.googleapis.com\/afs-prod\/media\/d80e54a71fe84cf5bcbaff3e87b6be9a\/2000.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">IMAGE COPYRIGHT\/ AFP\/ Elsa Tesfa Berhe, 26, center, a reproductive health official from Adwa, collects water a day after arriving from Humera to Hamdayet, eastern Sudan, near the border with Ethiopia, on March 16, 2021. (AP Photo\/Nariman El-Mofty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"forceBreak-0-2-32\"><\/div>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">Berhe fears that the situation in rural areas is even worse, as described by the displaced people arriving in cities. So far, few from the outside world can reach the areas where the majority of Tigrayans lived before the conflict, as fighting continues.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">\u201cDo you think there is a word to explain this? There is no word,\u201d said a midwife from Humera, who gave only her first name, Mulu.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">In Hamdayet she befriended seven women from the same village, Mai Gaba, who said they were raped separately by various fighters, including Ethiopian federal forces. Mulu fears that Mai Gaba is a conservative example and estimates that some communities have seen scores of assaults.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">\u201cThis is to harm the community psychologically,\u201d Mulu said. \u201cMost of the people in Tigray support the (fugitive Tigray leaders). To destroy them, you must destroy Tigrayans.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"image-0-2-14 wrapper-0-2-58\" data-key=\"media-placeholder\">\n<figure style=\"width: 2000px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a class=\"gallery-0-2-60 galleryModal-0-2-132\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/world-news-sudan-ethiopia-only-on-ap-842741eebf9bf0984946619c0fc15023\/gallery\/1b5213e210524259a71cf12c8125cd9d\" data-key=\"media-placeholder\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"image-0-2-137 image-0-2-62\" src=\"https:\/\/storage.googleapis.com\/afs-prod\/media\/1b5213e210524259a71cf12c8125cd9d\/2000.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">IMAGE COPYRIGHT\/ AFP\/ Tigrayan refugees who fled the conflict in the Ethiopia&#8217;s Tigray try to find a network signal for their mobile phones in Hamdayet, eastern Sudan, near the border with Ethiopia, on March 23, 2021. (AP Photo\/Nariman El-Mofty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">There is more to come.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">Almost every person interviewed described a worrying shortage of food, and some said Tigrayans are being starved. Many recalled seeing crops being looted or burned in communities by Amhara or Eritrean fighters, a toll that even shows up in satellite imagery.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">Kidu Gebregirgis, a farmer, said he was questioned almost daily about his ethnicity, his shirt yanked aside to check for marks from the strap of a gun. He said the Amhara harvested around 5,000 kilograms (5.5 short tons) of sorghum from his fields and hauled it away, a task that took two weeks. He shook his head in amazement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">The conflict began shortly before the harvest in the largely agricultural region. Now the planting season approaches.<\/p>\n<div class=\"image-0-2-14 wrapper-0-2-58\" data-key=\"media-placeholder\">\n<figure style=\"width: 2000px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a class=\"gallery-0-2-60 galleryModal-0-2-132\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/world-news-sudan-ethiopia-only-on-ap-842741eebf9bf0984946619c0fc15023\/gallery\/b754a9b4b27f4b1ebd7b9ac98f6881d2\" data-key=\"media-placeholder\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"image-0-2-137 image-0-2-62\" src=\"https:\/\/storage.googleapis.com\/afs-prod\/media\/b754a9b4b27f4b1ebd7b9ac98f6881d2\/2000.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">IMAGE COPYRIGHT\/ AFP\/ Tigrayan refugee Kidu Gebregirgis, a farmer who fled the conflict in Ethiopia&#8217;s Tigray, is photographed in eastern Sudan, near the border with Ethiopia, on March 15, 2021. (AP Photo\/Nariman El-Mofty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"embed-caption Component-root-0-2-135 caption-0-2-64\" data-key=\"embed-caption\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">\u201cBut there is no seed,\u201d Kidu said. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing to start again.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">The prospect is terrifying, said Alex de Waal, the author of a new report warning of mass starvation in Tigray and a researcher at the Fletcher School at Tufts University.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">\u201cWhat I fear is that millions of people are in the rural areas, staying because they are hopeful they will be able to plant,\u201d he said. \u201cIf they\u2019re not able to plant, if food supplies run out, then all of a sudden we could see a mass migration.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">Tigrayans who passed through rural communities described starving people, often elderly, begging outside churches. Sometimes they did, too.<\/p>\n<div class=\"image-0-2-14 wrapper-0-2-58\" data-key=\"media-placeholder\">\n<figure style=\"width: 2000px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a class=\"gallery-0-2-60 galleryModal-0-2-132\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/world-news-sudan-ethiopia-only-on-ap-842741eebf9bf0984946619c0fc15023\/gallery\/3f5ed3a5f1a24e5f82e20f49e99c94dd\" data-key=\"media-placeholder\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"image-0-2-137 image-0-2-62\" src=\"https:\/\/storage.googleapis.com\/afs-prod\/media\/3f5ed3a5f1a24e5f82e20f49e99c94dd\/2000.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">IMAGE COPYRIGHT\/ AFP\/ Ordained priest Berhane Debesu, 34, a Tigrayan refugee from Humera, stands with a cross at the church in Hamdayet, eastern Sudan, near the border with Ethiopia, on March 15, 2021. (AP Photo\/Nariman El-Mofty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">Alem, the exhausted mother, begged for money and tightened her clothes to control the hunger pangs. Abedom, a day laborer who only gave one name, begged while roaming the mountains and villages for three months.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">\u201cIt was normal to go a whole day without food,\u201d he said. \u201cSo many people were hungry. They loot everything, so if they take it all, how do I survive?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">The hunger was staggering. One refugee saw a man faint on the road in Adi Asr, close to death. Another described a fellow traveler so tired he simply stopped walking. Yet another saw a child, too weak to go on, left behind.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">Again, ethnicity was crucial. Belaynesh, from Dansha, said she made sure to speak Amharic when approaching farmhouses in western Tigray for food.<\/p>\n<div class=\"image-0-2-14 wrapper-0-2-58\" data-key=\"media-placeholder\">\n<figure style=\"width: 1500px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a class=\"gallery-0-2-60 galleryModal-0-2-132\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/world-news-sudan-ethiopia-only-on-ap-842741eebf9bf0984946619c0fc15023\/gallery\/afs:Medium:10017570017\" data-key=\"media-placeholder\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"image-0-2-137 image-0-2-62\" src=\"https:\/\/storage.googleapis.com\/afs-prod\/media\/afs:Medium:10017570017\/1500.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1500\" height=\"1000\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">IMAGE COPYRIGHT\/ AFP\/ Tigrayan refugees who fled the conflict in the Ethiopia&#8217;s Tigray gather after the sun sets, in Hamdeyat near the Sudan-Ethiopia border, eastern Sudan, March 23, 2021. (AP Photo\/Nariman El-Mofty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">Ethiopia, under international pressure, has said food aid has been distributed to more than 4 million people in Tigray. Refugees disagreed, saying they saw no such thing in their communities or asserting that food was being diverted.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">Maza Girmay, 65, said she heard food was being distributed, so she went to the government office in her community of Bahkar to inquire.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">\u201cThey told me, \u2018Go home, you\u2019re Tigrayan,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cWe Tigrayans are Ethiopian. Why do they treat us as non-Ethiopian?\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"image-0-2-14 wrapper-0-2-58\" data-key=\"media-placeholder\">\n<figure style=\"width: 2000px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a class=\"gallery-0-2-60 galleryModal-0-2-132\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/world-news-sudan-ethiopia-only-on-ap-842741eebf9bf0984946619c0fc15023\/gallery\/4c12eee259bf409885c97803150d7141\" data-key=\"media-placeholder\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"image-0-2-137 image-0-2-62\" src=\"https:\/\/storage.googleapis.com\/afs-prod\/media\/4c12eee259bf409885c97803150d7141\/2000.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">IMAGE COPYRIGHT\/ AFP\/ Tigrayan refugee Maza Girmay, 65, sits in her shelter, in Hamdayet, eastern Sudan, near the border with Ethiopia, on March 15, 2021. (AP Photo\/Nariman El-Mofty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">The rejection brought her to tears. An Orthodox cross tattooed on her forehead, long faded from childhood, wrinkled with her sorrow.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">In the community of Division, farmer Berhane Gebrewahid said he was shot by Amhara fighters seeking his cattle. He said food aid was distributed in February by Amhara authorities but refused to Tigrayans, including him. Even the name of his homeland had been changed to Northern Gondar, after a major city in Amhara.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">A colonel with the Tigray fighters, Bahre Tebeje, worried that starvation will kill more people than the war itself.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">\u201cMost food aid returns to the Amhara and Eritreans,\u201d he asserted, leaning forward intently, a tattered black-and-white kaffiyeh around his neck. \u201cIt\u2019s not being distributed to the people.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"image-0-2-14 wrapper-0-2-58\" data-key=\"media-placeholder\">\n<figure style=\"width: 2000px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a class=\"gallery-0-2-60 galleryModal-0-2-132\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/world-news-sudan-ethiopia-only-on-ap-842741eebf9bf0984946619c0fc15023\/gallery\/a80f40a121a74354b30be10f98fcc6da\" data-key=\"media-placeholder\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"image-0-2-137 image-0-2-62\" src=\"https:\/\/storage.googleapis.com\/afs-prod\/media\/a80f40a121a74354b30be10f98fcc6da\/2000.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">IMAGE COPYRIGHT\/ AFP\/ Abedom, a 25-year-old day laborer and Tigrayan refugee, sits for a portrait inside his friends&#8217; shelter in Hamdayet, eastern Sudan, near the border with Ethiopia, on March 16, 2021. (AP Photo\/Nariman El-Mofty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"embed-caption Component-root-0-2-135 caption-0-2-64\" data-key=\"embed-caption\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">Severe malnutrition is already above emergency levels as humanitarian workers rush to reach communities, the U.N. has said. In Hamdayet, a handful of such cases were recently sent to a regional hospital for treatment, according to a doctor there. One woman, recovering, still couldn\u2019t produce milk for her baby, who whimpered and sucked at a limp breast.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">Battered and hungry, Tigrayans still arrive daily at the border post where Sudanese soldiers watch a no man\u2019s land in the shadow of a fading flag. One recent evening, the AP saw three new refugees approaching.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Component-root-0-2-127 paragraph-0-2-12\">In Sudan, the Tigrayans are registered and asked for their ethnicity. For once, they are free to answer.<\/p>\n<p>SOURCE: <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/world-news-sudan-ethiopia-only-on-ap-842741eebf9bf0984946619c0fc15023\">ASSOCIATED PRESS<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"embed-caption Component-root-0-2-135 caption-0-2-64\" data-key=\"embed-caption\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By CARA ANNA HAMDAYET, Sudan (AP) \u2014 The atrocities have been seared into the skin and the minds of Tigrayans, who take shelter by the thousands within sight of the homeland they fled in northern Ethiopia. They arrive in heat that soars above 38 C (100 F), carrying the pain of gunshot wounds, torn vaginas, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":976,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[216,45],"tags":[405,292,291,404,402,408,406,409,403,380,294,407],"class_list":{"0":"post-975","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-africa","8":"category-top-stories","9":"tag-amhara","10":"tag-eritrea","11":"tag-ethiopia","12":"tag-ethnic-cleansing","13":"tag-gunshot","14":"tag-hamdayet","15":"tag-humera","16":"tag-pulitzer-center","17":"tag-rape","18":"tag-sudan","19":"tag-tigray","20":"tag-tigrayans"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>\u2018Leave no Tigrayan\u2019: In Ethiopia, an ethnicity is erased - News 25<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.news25.org\/leave-no-tigrayan-in-ethiopia-an-ethnicity-is-erased\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018Leave no Tigrayan\u2019: In Ethiopia, an ethnicity is erased - News 25\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By CARA ANNA HAMDAYET, Sudan (AP) \u2014 The atrocities have been seared into the skin and the minds of Tigrayans, who take shelter by the thousands within sight of the homeland they fled in northern Ethiopia. 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