Ethiopia Tigray Afar IDPs USAGM
Metadata
- Ethiopia Tigray Afar IDPs USAGM
- May 23, 2022
- Content Type Package
- Language English
- Transcript/Script English USAGM SHARE (PLAYBOOK SLUG: ETHIOPIA TIGRAY AFAR IDPs HEADLINE: Ethiopians Displaced by Conflict Say They Have Nothing to Return To TEASER: Conflict between the Ethiopian federal government and rebel Tigray People’s Liberation Front has left millions displaced PUBLISHED AT: Monday, 05/23/2022 at 1:50PM BYLINE: Linda Givetash, Michele Spatari DATELINE: SEMERA, ETHIOPIA VIDEOGRAPHER: Michele Spatari VIDEO EDITOR: SCRIPT EDITORS: Salem Solomon, LR VIDEO SOURCE (S): VOA Original PLATFORMS (mark with X): WEB __ TV X RADIO X TRT: 3:30 VID APPROVED BY: MAS TYPE: TVPKG EDITOR NOTES: There is a radio story accompanying this piece.)) ((INTRO)) [[The violence may have stopped in most parts of Ethiopia’s Afar region, but Afaris forced to leave their homes after Tigrayan forces occupied the region say they cannot return — and it’s not just Tigrayan civilians who are affected by the conflict. Displaced people from the neighboring Afar region say attacks on their towns have left homes and livelihoods utterly destroyed. Linda Givetash reports from Semera, Ethiopia.]] ((NARRATOR)) This camp is one of many in Ethiopia’s Afar region where the U.N. estimates some 700,000 people have been displaced by violence tied to the civil conflict in the Tigray region. Some of those displaced are sheltering here, about 100 kilometers from the region’s capital of Semera. The Afar region had long-standing close ties with the Tigray region, so when forces aligned with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front attacked, residents were taken by surprise. ((Halima Tahir Ismael, Displaced Afar Shop Owner, FEMALE IN AFAR 20 secs “We were asleep. We heard shots from heavy machine guns. We woke up in a war zone. Our husbands and children were scattered. We left our homes because of the heavy fighting in our livelihood.” ((NARRATOR)) She says she fled with three of her children — all under the age of five — with nothing but the clothes on their backs. They, like other displaced people, now rely on food aid. She’s heard from those who stayed in the Afar region where Tigrayan forces attacked that the grocery store she owned was ransacked and destroyed as was her family’s home in Konnaba. ((Halima Tahir Ismael, Displaced Afar Shop Owner (FEMALE IN AFAR 13 secs)) “How can we go back to Konnaba? If we return to Konnaba, there is no water, property and household utilities like furniture is looted.” ((NARRATOR)) Ismael says whether you were well-off like herself or poor before the war, now everyone has been left equally impoverished. Valerie Browning, a nurse and volunteer in the region for over 30 years, visited northern communities of Afar days after troops pulled out in April, a condition warring groups agreed to allow humanitarian aid. ((Valerie Browning, Afar Pastoralist Development Association, (English, 23 secs)) “The destruction is absolutely systematic. It is house by house that they looted, house by house for the civilians, they've looted everything. And institution, the government institutions either burned them, exploded them, or they tore out all the machinery or the technical stuff just ripped it apart.” ((NARRATOR)) The World Food Program and other humanitarian groups are distributing food and other aid, but it has been a challenge to reach everyone in the remote and rough terrain. While the WFP has given aid to 630,000 people, the total number of people in need tops 1.3 million — more than half the region’s population. There are also longer-term concerns. ((Christine Hakonze, World Food Program (English, 15 secs)) “We have to think of what happens after this. When people go back how are they … going to provide for their children? So, we need support from the donors, especially … for funding. For us, we provide support to the households in terms of livelihoods.” ((NARRATOR)) Preliminary assessments by the Afar regional government have determined that about (20 billion Ethiopian birr) $388 million USD worth of damage has been done. There is no water, health facilities or schools functioning in many areas. ((Mohamed Hussein, Head of Afar Disaster Prevention and Food Security Office, (English, 21 secs)) “To return the community, we have to put in place the infrastructure [that] is needed. We do have very limited capacity to undertake all this recovery and reconstruction activities. So, I urge the international community to grab as an attention and even mobilize resource.” ((NARRATOR)) The World Bank has already provided funds to help the country rebuild. But Hussein says more help is needed for people like Ismael to go home safely. ((Linda Givetash, for VOA News, Semera, Ethiopia))
- Transcript/Script USAGM SHARE (PLAYBOOK SLUG: ETHIOPIA TIGRAY AFAR IDPs HEADLINE: Ethiopians Displaced by Conflict Say They Have Nothing to Return To TEASER: Conflict between the Ethiopian federal government and rebel Tigray People’s Liberation Front has left millions displaced PUBLISHED AT: Monday, 05/23/2022 at 1:50PM BYLINE: Linda Givetash, Michele Spatari DATELINE: SEMERA, ETHIOPIA VIDEOGRAPHER: Michele Spatari VIDEO EDITOR: SCRIPT EDITORS: Salem Solomon, LR VIDEO SOURCE (S): VOA Original PLATFORMS (mark with X): WEB __ TV X RADIO X TRT: 3:30 VID APPROVED BY: MAS TYPE: TVPKG EDITOR NOTES: There is a radio story accompanying this piece.)) ((INTRO)) [[The violence may have stopped in most parts of Ethiopia’s Afar region, but Afaris forced to leave their homes after Tigrayan forces occupied the region say they cannot return — and it’s not just Tigrayan civilians who are affected by the conflict. Displaced people from the neighboring Afar region say attacks on their towns have left homes and livelihoods utterly destroyed. Linda Givetash reports from Semera, Ethiopia.]] ((NARRATOR)) This camp is one of many in Ethiopia’s Afar region where the U.N. estimates some 700,000 people have been displaced by violence tied to the civil conflict in the Tigray region. Some of those displaced are sheltering here, about 100 kilometers from the region’s capital of Semera. The Afar region had long-standing close ties with the Tigray region, so when forces aligned with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front attacked, residents were taken by surprise. ((Halima Tahir Ismael, Displaced Afar Shop Owner, FEMALE IN AFAR 20 secs “We were asleep. We heard shots from heavy machine guns. We woke up in a war zone. Our husbands and children were scattered. We left our homes because of the heavy fighting in our livelihood.” ((NARRATOR)) She says she fled with three of her children — all under the age of five — with nothing but the clothes on their backs. They, like other displaced people, now rely on food aid. She’s heard from those who stayed in the Afar region where Tigrayan forces attacked that the grocery store she owned was ransacked and destroyed as was her family’s home in Konnaba. ((Halima Tahir Ismael, Displaced Afar Shop Owner (FEMALE IN AFAR 13 secs)) “How can we go back to Konnaba? If we return to Konnaba, there is no water, property and household utilities like furniture is looted.” ((NARRATOR)) Ismael says whether you were well-off like herself or poor before the war, now everyone has been left equally impoverished. Valerie Browning, a nurse and volunteer in the region for over 30 years, visited northern communities of Afar days after troops pulled out in April, a condition warring groups agreed to allow humanitarian aid. ((Valerie Browning, Afar Pastoralist Development Association, (English, 23 secs)) “The destruction is absolutely systematic. It is house by house that they looted, house by house for the civilians, they've looted everything. And institution, the government institutions either burned them, exploded them, or they tore out all the machinery or the technical stuff just ripped it apart.” ((NARRATOR)) The World Food Program and other humanitarian groups are distributing food and other aid, but it has been a challenge to reach everyone in the remote and rough terrain. While the WFP has given aid to 630,000 people, the total number of people in need tops 1.3 million — more than half the region’s population. There are also longer-term concerns. ((Christine Hakonze, World Food Program (English, 15 secs)) “We have to think of what happens after this. When people go back how are they … going to provide for their children? So, we need support from the donors, especially … for funding. For us, we provide support to the households in terms of livelihoods.” ((NARRATOR)) Preliminary assessments by the Afar regional government have determined that about (20 billion Ethiopian birr) $388 million USD worth of damage has been done. There is no water, health facilities or schools functioning in many areas. ((Mohamed Hussein, Head of Afar Disaster Prevention and Food Security Office, (English, 21 secs)) “To return the community, we have to put in place the infrastructure [that] is needed. We do have very limited capacity to undertake all this recovery and reconstruction activities. So, I urge the international community to grab as an attention and even mobilize resource.” ((NARRATOR)) The World Bank has already provided funds to help the country rebuild. But Hussein says more help is needed for people like Ismael to go home safely. ((Linda Givetash, for VOA News, Semera, Ethiopia))
- NewsML Media Topics Arts, Culture, Entertainment and Media
- Network VOA
- Embargo Date May 23, 2022 14:09 EDT
- Byline Linda Givetash
- Brand / Language Service Voice of America