AP PHOTOS: War forces thousands of Ethiopians to Sudan
By NARIMAN EL-MOFTY
They took donkeys and beds and motorcycles and colorful rugs that they now drape over pipes to create shelters. Others left their shoes when they crossed a river to get to safety.
Tens of thousands of Ethiopians who had only been harvesting for a few weeks are now together in refugee camps in Sudan. They ran from fields and homes and hospital rooms as months of tensions between the Ethiopian government and those of the challenging Tigray region turned into deadly fighting.
Some walked for days to reach the border, and once they did they were packed in buses or trucks for an arduous 11-hour journey to a camp. When a vehicle pulled away, a baby cried hysterically, and his brother held the child by the window for fresh air, explaining that the child was hungry and dehydrated and that the bus was too full.
Once in the camp they wait. For food, for the word of loved ones, for water. Some crowd around a faucet for hours before filling their buckets. Children from 7 years old have trouble lifting the heavy jugs on their back.
Many arrived malnourished. A woman who is nine months pregnant weighed only 45 kilos. She cried when she saw the number on the scale. Another received a nutritional package but did not receive it.
The Tigray region remains largely cut off from the world, but many refugees still surround a small TV screen in the hope of hearing what might happen at home. For many, it is their only source of information since they lost cell phones along the way.
While watching the news, some of the young ethnic Tigrayan men say they hope to go back to fight for their homeland. Others fear they may never return: they tell of soldiers who raided their homes, beat them and neighbors in the street and left them for dead. Witnesses have said that hundreds of people were massacred in the city of Mai-Kadra, targeted for their ethnicity – although there are conflicting reports as to who killed whom.
When night falls, the mood changes. The oppressive heat is growing. The rescuers go home. Children dance to pop music, teenagers gather to drink coffee and smoke hookahs, and adults discuss politics. One man hopes that Tigray will one day secede from Ethiopia.
“I don’t identify as an Ethiopian; I am Tigray, ”said Hayle Mariam, a 25-year-old refugee. “If a married couple can’t go on, what do they do? They are getting divorced – we need our divorce from Ethiopia. “