The world is ignoring Tigray's year-long nightmare of war

On 4 November 2020 the world was occupied with the US election. For myself and many others with family and friends in Tigray, however, that day marked the beginning of a continuing nightmare. And it’s one that the world has, mostly, ignored.

- Magdalene Abraha

When on that day the Ethiopian prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, a Nobel peace prize winner, announced a military offensive in Tigray, the region was cut off from the world. Phone and internet was cut , banks were closed and journalists were barred from the region, which lies in the far north of Ethiopia and is home to more than 7 million people.

Those of us with family in Tigray braced ourselves, waiting to hear what had become of family and friends. Now, a year on, we have a manmade humanitarian catastrophe. UN relief chief Martin Griffiths said earlier this month that “Tigray is probably the worst place to live in the world right now”.

In the first two months of the war, more than 56,000 people fled to Sudan – bringing with them harrowing memories of massacres at the hands of armed militia, Ethiopian soldiers, and troops from Eritrea (which lies to the north of Tigray). Ethiopian soldiers subsequently closed the border, cutting off the refugee route.