Ethiopia Tigray Hunger Displaced USAGM
Metadata
- Ethiopia Tigray Hunger Displaced USAGM
- May 19, 2022
- Content Type Package
- Language English
- Transcript/Script English USAGM SHARE ((PLAYBOOK SLUG: ETHIOPIA TIGRAY HUNGER DISPLACED (TV) HEADLINE: Children Abandoned as People Flee Starvation in Tigray TEASER: Advocates say more help is needed for people trying to flee famine and starvation in Tigray. PUBLISHED AT: 5/19/2022 at 9am BYLINE: Henry Wilkins DATELINE: SEKOTA, ETHIOPIA VIDEOGRAPHER: Henry Wilkins VIDEO EDITOR: PRODUCER: SCRIPT EDITORS: Salem Solomon, BR, MAS VIDEO SOURCE (S): VOA, ZOOM PLATFORMS (mark with X): WEB __ TV X RADIO__ TRT: 3:44 VID APPROVED BY: Jepsen TYPE: TVPKG EDITOR NOTES:)) ((INTRO)) [[For months, only a trickle of aid has entered Ethiopia’s northern region of Tigray, parts of which the U.N. says are likely in a state of famine. Some Tigrayans fleeing hunger are so hopeless, they tell of abandoning their families. Henry Wilkins reports from Sekota, Ethiopia.]] ((NARRATOR)) Tigray has been under a de facto humanitarian blockade for a year, with the Ethiopian government and Tigrayan rebels (TPLF) blaming each other for preventing aid from getting through. Journalists are banned from entering the region, but recently, VOA traveled to the town of Sekota just ten kilometers away from Tigray. Here, thousands of people displaced from Tigray by war and hunger congregate each morning outside aid points, set up by the UN and non-profits. Some days they receive food, mostly, they do not. Many live in hastily erected metal shelters, like Kassahun Baye, a father of six, who arrived in Sekota from Tigray recently. This small bag of personal items is all he has. He left everything behind, including his family. ((Kassahun Baye, Recent Arrival from Tigray (in Amharic))) “I know my family has nothing to eat, but I can’t do anything. I will try to bring them here, if they survive until I can go back. I’m not cruel, it’s because this situation is beyond anything I am able to deal with.” ((NARRATOR)) Aids agencies say displaced persons staying in vast tents on the outskirts of Sekota are in a state of emergency for lack of food. In Tigray, they say some 700,000 people are living under ‘famine-like conditions.’ At least 1,900 children have already died of starvation, say regional officials, but the full extent of the humanitarian disaster is not known due to an information blackout. Many are unable even to escape Tigray. Kassa Tagaru belongs to the Amhara ethnic group. She says her ethnic Tigrayan husband did not come with her and her children because he feared being killed due to his ethnicity by soldiers, either crossing the civil war’s frontline or when he arrived in Amhara. ((Kassa Tagaru, Recent Arrival From Tigray (in Amharic))) “Is he alive or dead from starvation, or something else? My nine-year-old daughter is always asking about him.” ((NARRATOR)) Militia groups, as well as military personnel, are everywhere in Sekota, a buffer to Tigrayan forces, just beyond the horizon. Rights groups have been ringing the alarm bells about ethnic-based violence and killings against Tigrayans by militias and security forces, including in the Amhara region. Establishing humanitarian corridors to allow people to escape Tigray would help alleviate the crisis, say advocacy groups. ((Sarah Deardorff Miller, Refugees International Senior Fellow (in English))) ((Mandatory Courtesy: Zoom)) “Absolutely, there needs to be more ways for civilians who are trying to flee to get out. I mean, that is a basic principle in international law… That’s a very basic, refugees 101 issue.” ((NARRATOR)) Zenash Worku is an aid worker in Sekota. ((Zenash Worku, Sekota Aid Worker (female, in Amharic))) “We are accepting displaced people that arrive here even though they are from Tigray. That is part of being human. I believe people shouldn’t suffer because of disagreement among politicians.” ((NARRATOR)) Meanwhile, desperation continues to drive people to make the treacherous journey to Sekota across these rugged hills. ((Kenew Asfaw, Recently Arrived from Tigray (male, in Tigrigna))) “The journey takes four days and nights, without any food or water. Anyway, what have I got to lose? I would rather die trying to get out than stay there and die of hunger.” ((NARRATOR)) Most people who spoke to VOA said before leaving Tigray they witnessed adults and children dying of starvation. ((Henry Wilkins, for VOA News, Sekota, Ethiopia))
- Transcript/Script USAGM SHARE ((PLAYBOOK SLUG: ETHIOPIA TIGRAY HUNGER DISPLACED (TV) HEADLINE: Children Abandoned as People Flee Starvation in Tigray TEASER: Advocates say more help is needed for people trying to flee famine and starvation in Tigray. PUBLISHED AT: 5/19/2022 at 9am BYLINE: Henry Wilkins DATELINE: SEKOTA, ETHIOPIA VIDEOGRAPHER: Henry Wilkins VIDEO EDITOR: PRODUCER: SCRIPT EDITORS: Salem Solomon, BR, MAS VIDEO SOURCE (S): VOA, ZOOM PLATFORMS (mark with X): WEB __ TV X RADIO__ TRT: 3:44 VID APPROVED BY: Jepsen TYPE: TVPKG EDITOR NOTES:)) ((INTRO)) [[For months, only a trickle of aid has entered Ethiopia’s northern region of Tigray, parts of which the U.N. says are likely in a state of famine. Some Tigrayans fleeing hunger are so hopeless, they tell of abandoning their families. Henry Wilkins reports from Sekota, Ethiopia.]] ((NARRATOR)) Tigray has been under a de facto humanitarian blockade for a year, with the Ethiopian government and Tigrayan rebels (TPLF) blaming each other for preventing aid from getting through. Journalists are banned from entering the region, but recently, VOA traveled to the town of Sekota just ten kilometers away from Tigray. Here, thousands of people displaced from Tigray by war and hunger congregate each morning outside aid points, set up by the UN and non-profits. Some days they receive food, mostly, they do not. Many live in hastily erected metal shelters, like Kassahun Baye, a father of six, who arrived in Sekota from Tigray recently. This small bag of personal items is all he has. He left everything behind, including his family. ((Kassahun Baye, Recent Arrival from Tigray (in Amharic))) “I know my family has nothing to eat, but I can’t do anything. I will try to bring them here, if they survive until I can go back. I’m not cruel, it’s because this situation is beyond anything I am able to deal with.” ((NARRATOR)) Aids agencies say displaced persons staying in vast tents on the outskirts of Sekota are in a state of emergency for lack of food. In Tigray, they say some 700,000 people are living under ‘famine-like conditions.’ At least 1,900 children have already died of starvation, say regional officials, but the full extent of the humanitarian disaster is not known due to an information blackout. Many are unable even to escape Tigray. Kassa Tagaru belongs to the Amhara ethnic group. She says her ethnic Tigrayan husband did not come with her and her children because he feared being killed due to his ethnicity by soldiers, either crossing the civil war’s frontline or when he arrived in Amhara. ((Kassa Tagaru, Recent Arrival From Tigray (in Amharic))) “Is he alive or dead from starvation, or something else? My nine-year-old daughter is always asking about him.” ((NARRATOR)) Militia groups, as well as military personnel, are everywhere in Sekota, a buffer to Tigrayan forces, just beyond the horizon. Rights groups have been ringing the alarm bells about ethnic-based violence and killings against Tigrayans by militias and security forces, including in the Amhara region. Establishing humanitarian corridors to allow people to escape Tigray would help alleviate the crisis, say advocacy groups. ((Sarah Deardorff Miller, Refugees International Senior Fellow (in English))) ((Mandatory Courtesy: Zoom)) “Absolutely, there needs to be more ways for civilians who are trying to flee to get out. I mean, that is a basic principle in international law… That’s a very basic, refugees 101 issue.” ((NARRATOR)) Zenash Worku is an aid worker in Sekota. ((Zenash Worku, Sekota Aid Worker (female, in Amharic))) “We are accepting displaced people that arrive here even though they are from Tigray. That is part of being human. I believe people shouldn’t suffer because of disagreement among politicians.” ((NARRATOR)) Meanwhile, desperation continues to drive people to make the treacherous journey to Sekota across these rugged hills. ((Kenew Asfaw, Recently Arrived from Tigray (male, in Tigrigna))) “The journey takes four days and nights, without any food or water. Anyway, what have I got to lose? I would rather die trying to get out than stay there and die of hunger.” ((NARRATOR)) Most people who spoke to VOA said before leaving Tigray they witnessed adults and children dying of starvation. ((Henry Wilkins, for VOA News, Sekota, Ethiopia))
- NewsML Media Topics Arts, Culture, Entertainment and Media
- Network VOA
- Embargo Date May 19, 2022 09:11 EDT
- Byline Henry Wilkins
- Brand / Language Service Voice of America