ETHIOPIA: People of Ethiopia’s Tigray “Cry for Urgent” Humanitarian Assistance, Bishop Medhin

Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA

Bishop of Ethiopia’s Eparchy of Adigrate has appealed for urgent humanitarian support for the people of Tigray who have been affected due to the ongoing conflict between Ethiopia’s Federal Government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).

“I am writing you this appeal with terrible, dire humanitarian situation which we are experiencing here in Tigray Region because of the war which started on November 4, 2020,” Bishop Tesfassilasie Medhin disclosed in a statement dated Tuesday, January 5 and circulated via social media Thursday, January 14.

“The people including Eritrean refugees have run out of food items, basic life-saving medicines, water etc. and have no access to essential services like shelter, electricity, banking, telephone, internet connection, transport and health to help their families,” Bishop Medhin has expressed adding that “it is a daily reality to hear people dying with the fighting consequences, lack of food, insulin and other basic medicines.”

According to the Prelate, the conflict has led to displacement of millions of people most of whom women and children who escaped from their homes to “ragged mountains and valleys” for safety and to escape from “artillery shelling and air-strikes” in order to save their lives, while those from the western Tigray Region have fled to Sudan for refuge.

Addressing all partners in a statement titled “A cry for urgent humanitarian emergency response for people in Tigray,” the Bishop of the Eparchy of Adigrate appeals for support saying, “The need for urgent humanitarian emergency is vital to save millions of people in dire condition.”

He has called on all bodies to coordinate and make necessary efforts to respond to the “pressing humanitarian need to save millions of lives affected by the ongoing devastating war” in the region.

The Bishop promised that the Ethiopian Catholic Church, Adigrate Diocese’s Catholic Secretariat together with all the congregations in the diocese are ready to work with the national and international partners and donors to respond to the “humanitarian crisis” in Tigray.

He further asks the people to remember them in prayers especially in the painful situation which the entire population is experiencing.