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Ethiopians Displaced by War, Weary to Go Home

Some of the more than 70,000 Ethiopians who fled to Sudan during the two-year war in the Tigray region are hoping to return home soon, as a November peace deal between Ethiopian federal forces and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front appears to be holding. However, many of those refugees are skeptical the peace will last. Rights groups say hundreds of thousands of Tigrayans were pushed out of their homes in what amounts to ethnic cleansing — a notion that Ethiopian authorities reject. Even if their safety was guaranteed, it’s not clear what Tigrayan refugees like Tesfai would have left if they returned home. Tesfai worked as a grocer in Tigray’s capital, Mekelle, but says his shop was looted during the war. The United Nations in October estimated half a million Ethiopians have died from conflict, hunger, disease, and lack of medical care during the war.

SOURCE:VOA

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