The Tigray region is Ethiopia’s northernmost state. After years of war, the region is peaceful. But the conflict’s effects linger. Drought and aid mismanagement compound a hunger crisis. Weary farmers hope that rain will come.
The Tigray War officially took place from November 3, 2020, to November 3, 2022. The two-year war between federal troops and regional forces took the lives of as many as 600,000 people.
Months after the end of the conflict, the United Nations and the United States halted food aid for Tigray. They stopped because Ethiopian officials were stealing grain sent by global aid organizations.
Meanwhile, farmers were able to sow less than half of Tigray’s farmland during the main planting season last year. Crop yield in those areas was far below expectations because of drought. In some areas, the yield was as little as 2% of the expected total.
Tigray’s poor harvest last year prompted authorities to warn of an “unfolding famine.” With that in mind, aid groups made food deliveries to Tigray. However, only a fraction of needy people in Tigray are receiving food.
Today, once-lush fields lie empty. Mothers watch helplessly as their children grow weak from hunger. Nearly 400 people died of starvation in Tigray and a neighboring region in the six months leading up to January 2024, according to national sources. It’s a rare admission of hunger-related deaths by a federal government.
Finarwa, a farming community of about 13,000 people, is among the worst-hit places. Tadesse Mehari is the officer in charge of the health center there. He says lack of food has forced children to flee and beg in nearby towns.
“Nothing here to eat. So, for the sake of getting food and to save their lives, they are displaced anywhere, far from here,” he says.
District leader Hayale Gebrekedian listens to the pleas of villagers who stream into his office. A widow named Serawit Wolde with 10 children cries as she recounts that five of them are ill from hunger. “Please, any help,” she tells Hayale.
But he has nothing to give. “There simply isn’t any [food],” he says.
Hayale says access to water is another challenge. Of the 25 wells that once fed his village and its animals, just five still work. Some villagers now trek for over an hour and a half to access water.
Some areas in the region typically get about 60 days of rain during the rainy season. The same areas had only a few rainy days this year.
God alone makes rain. (Zechariah 10:1) Sometimes it is difficult to understand why He sends rain to some areas and withholds it from others. But since we know God’s character—loving, kind, and gracious to all (Matthew 5:45)—we can trust Him. And we can ask Him to provide food and water for Ethiopians.
Haile Gebre Kirstos is 70 years old. He continues to plow his parched land and plant sorghum in his village even though rain fell “only two days during the last rainy season,” he says.
Once flourishing and teeming with livestock, the land is now barren, yet he remains hopeful.
Plowing doesn’t usually begin until the rainy season in May or June. But this year, he started early. He’s driven by extreme need and speaks of farmers who have sold their oxen and farming tools to feed their families.
“The war took everything,” Hayale says. “There’s nothing left.”
He makes His Sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. — Matthew 5:45
