By Selam Gebremeskel, Victoria

Introduction

In the first week of December, ICN received a call from an old family friend Moges Kebede who wanted to explain the plight of his family members in Tigray province Ethiopia. He was calling more in my role with refugee sponsorship groups. He had been an associate of my father who operated St. Andrew (Cathedral) Refugee Association (SARA) between 1979 and 2009. A number of Ethiopian refugees had come to Victoria through my father’s assistance and sponsorship.

SARA was closed in 2009, but in the eight years until his death, my father was able to morph the dust of SARA into the Central African Refugee Association (CARA) which is sponsoring Burundian families out of refugee camps in Rwanda.(see “Urgent Appeal on page 14 of the Winter 2020/21 issue of ICN) The leader of CARA, Anseleme Hategekimana attended a coffee house outdoor meeting with Moges and a few other members of the twenty families of Tigray extraction, including Salem Gebremeskel who wrote the following updated article.

In brief, the situation is that in November 2020, the central government of Ethiopia, Africa’s second most populace country, bombed the provincial capitol of Tigray Province Mekelle. Hundreds died and 25 thousand fled to nearby Sudan. A ground offensive was begun by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed against this important northern province because local rulers were defying his authority.

The irony was that Africa’s youngest leader, Abiy Ahmed had been awarded the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize for pursuing peace with neighbouring country and previously secessionist province Eritrea.

Tigray, a province of 5 million, was a key region in the re-establishment of Ethiopia as a leading African nation. The Tigray people’s Liberation Front leader Debretson Gebremichael has accused Eritrea of sending troops and tanks over the Tigray border. Tigray forces fired rockets into Eritrea in early December according to Reuters news service.

Debretson has urged the United Nations and The Africa Union to intervene. He accuses Mr. Abiy of the largest Oromo ethnic group, of purging Tigray leadership over the previous two years.

Amnesty International is pushing for negotiations and cessation of conflict.

Families in Victoria suffered distress enhanced by the lack of communications and media bans. They are working at providing needed supplies to camps where their families have fled in Sudan.

— Patrick Jamieson

We are Ethiopian-Tigrayans families living in Victoria BC asking for your kind help and assistance to help and support the displaced Ethiopian people in Sudan as well as the civilians affected by the War in Ethiopia Tigray region. We are around 20 families here in Victoria with close families in Tigray. We have been disconnected from our families and we do not know if our families are alive or dead.

Most of Tigrayan people are farmers depending on their land to survive. This year the Tigray region had the worst locust invasion in 25 years that destroyed approximately 490,000 acres of agricultural land. In addition, COVID-19 has been spreading fast in that region. To top it off, November 4, 2020, the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Abiy Ahmed, declared war on his own people in Tigray region. The Ethiopian government ordered airstrike on civilians and destroyed the region infrastructure, shut off the power grid, internet, fresh water supply, disabled the banking system, and closed borders not allowing crucial aid in or residents out of the region.

The people of Tigray were already facing food insecurity, there has been telecom and electricity blackout since the war began. There is a growing human catastrophe and refugee crisis is happening in this region. Tigray has truly become one of the worst humanitarian crises. Children, women and elders are facing an unimaginable tragedy, combining the deadly war with the horrors of poverty, disease and near-starvation.
As bombs fall from the sky, medical facilities are closing and supplies that could save young lives are simply not available. This war has been killing innocent civilians and causing people to flee to Sudan and has closed off all humanitarian access to the region, ringing alarm bells of human rights organization and genocide watch group.

The United Nations reported the people in Tigray are seeking refuge in Sudan travelling approximately 800 km by foot and crossing the Tekeze river to escape the war. Pregnant women and children are travelling by foot to reach a safe place to survive. UN reported more then 50 thousand people have arrived in Al Qadarif and Kassala, a town at the border of Sudan and Ethiopia. There are more than 4,000 people arriving daily to escape the war. And this number is expected to increase sharply. As overwhelming number of people arriving every day from Tigray. The United Nations fears the spread of communicable diseases among the refugee and the general safety and wellbeing of the people in the refugee camps.

The Tigray community in Victoria have many family members in Tigray. Since there is no phone or internet connection in the region currently, none of us know if our families are alive, dead or on their way to Sudan.

We have protested for Peace and wrote letters to the international community to push for ceasefire. As a member of the community here in Victoria, we want to go find our family members; we want to go find survivors, we want to go help the civilians affected by this war. We want to support the women/mothers who has lost their loved one due to this War.

We want to support the children who have lost a father and mother in this war. We want to help the refugees in Sudan and the internally displaced civilians. These people are fleeing away from their homes, affected by the trauma of War, starvation, and COVID 19 and other communal diseases. UNHCR and volunteers are trying to provide fundamental needs to these people but requires support from me and you to sustain that. They need my help, your help and every one’s help. Together we can make a difference!!

Please help the victims of WAR in Tigray, help the Tigrayan refugees in Sudan and the pregnant women and children who are displaced. Help the elderly man and women unable to walk to safety and left behind in Tigray separated from their families to die alone.

In addition, we have a group of volunteers who are planning to devote their time and money to go to refugee camps in Sudan and if the war stops to travel to Tigray to help civilians recover from the affects of the war. We have a group of people with medical background and other professions plan to travel to Tigray to rebuild people’s lives in Tigray.

Contacts: Selam Gebremeskel at email: selam027@yahoo.com or Phone: 250 217-9692

Moges Kebede at email: mogeskebede@homemail.com  or Phone: 250-888-0805