World Tour - Caught in Ethiopia’s crossfire

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: a World Tour special report on the conflict in Ethiopia. Here’s WORLD’s reporter in Africa, Onize Ohikere.

AUDIO: [Sound of chanting, singing]

ONIZE OHIKERE, REPORTER: Thousands of pro-government supporters rallied in Ethiopia’s capital on Sunday. They vowed to stand with the military to defend the city against armed rebel groups marching toward it.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed declared a state of emergency last week as fighters with the Tigray People's Liberation Front advanced on Addis Ababa.

World leaders, including the United States, sent negotiators to Ethiopia to help broker a peace deal. Olusegun Obasanjo is the African Union's high representative for the Horn of Africa.

OBASANJO: The time is now for collective actions in finding a lasting solution to avoid further escalation of the situation.

On Friday, leaders from nine groups fighting the government formed an alliance with one goal: to remove Ahmed from power.

Getachew Reda is a spokesman for the Tigray People's Liberation Front—or TPLF. Despite the group’s goals, he called fears of a bloodbath ridiculous.

REDA: For us, the objective is not Addis Ababa. We are not particularly interested in Addis Ababa, we are interested in making sure that Abiy does not represent a threat to our people anymore.

The conflict started last November when Ahmed sent Ethiopian troops and fighters from neighboring Eritrea into Tigray. He hoped to topple the TPLF because it opposed his government.

After initial government gains, the TPLF retook control of the region and began expanding into neighboring Afar and Amhara. Ahmed responded with a brutal blockade that has sparked a severe humanitarian crisis.

Getachew Reda said the TPLF is not interested in returning to the power it held in the country before Ahmed’s election in 2018.

REDA: We want to make sure that our people’s voice is heard, we have to make sure that our people exercise their right to self-determination including holding a referendum to determine whether they should remain a part of Ethiopia or become independent.

Trisha Okenge is the Ethiopia country director for the Christian aid group Food for the Hungry.

Okenge says the year-long conflict has been especially hard on families.

OKENGE: And it really struck me when the mothers were saying how frustrated they felt because they were not dependent on aid prior to this conflict happening. They were business women. They had companies. They had assets. They had employees. They had offices. And all of a sudden they found themselves internally displaced.

According to the United Nations, more than 5 million people in the region need humanitarian assistance. Nearly half a million are living in famine-like conditions and child malnutrition levels are extremely high.

Okenge says the mothers she met earlier this year are struggling to explain the situation to their children, who never knew hunger until now.

OKENGE: And the the heartbreak that they felt as moms was so poignant to me, because I think it drives home to me the entire humanitarian aspect of this. I know that there are conflicting views. There are conflicting opinions about how the aid is being distributed, how people are benefiting from it, but at the end of the day, it's really those moms and those babies who don't have anything to do with the conflict. They just want to live.

That’s this week’s World Tour. Reporting for WORLD, I’m Onize Ohikere in Abuja, Nigeria.

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