Ethiopians in Greater Columbus fear for relatives during civil war in Tigray region
Freweini Alemayoh hasn't heard from her 91-year-old grandmother, Giday, in more than 18 months.
The elderly woman has been more like a mother to Alemayoh, a 45-year-old Far East Side woman whose biological mother left when she was 3 years old.
But when a civil war started in November 2020 in Alemayoh's native country of Ethiopia, in the northern Tigray region where she's from and her grandmother lived, all communication was cut off.
'It's my heart breaking': Columbus Eritreans scared for lives of loved ones in Ethiopian refugee camps
"We have a family out there that we don't know if they're alive, they're dead, if they're eating, if they're sick and they're getting medication," Alemayoh said.
The country has been struck not only by civil war — which began over a domestic, political power struggle between Ethiopia's federal government and Tigray's regional government — but by famine, drought and other humanitarian crises.
'Waiting every day': Columbus resident fears for family's safety as conflict in Ethiopia escalates
There are 7 million Tigray residents and about that many people suffering from food insecurity and starvation in Tigray and two neighboring northern regions, Amhara and Afar, according to U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
Although a truce was declared in late March, the region remains devastated.
An estimated 500,000 people have died as a result of the conflict, with many unable to get water because there is no fuel to pump it or to transport it to those in need.
'This is history, this is culture': Ethiopians united by Meskel celebration
'All I want is peace'
Alemayoh wants people in Ohio to know about the conflict in Ethiopia and about the approximately 600 Tigrayans living locally who are worried about the fate of their loved ones.
They are among the 6,646 Ethiopians living in Ohio, according to the Census Bureau, with 2,256 of them in Columbus.
"When we say people are dying, we know them. They're our friends," said Kibrom Abera, 33, of the East Side.
'That kind of church': Churches once again becoming vital part of refugee resettlement process in Columbus
Birzaf Gebregiorgis, 50, of the Northwest Side, who came to the United States in 2001 and last visited Tigray in 2019, has video of her family there taken a few months ago. In it, her sister is crying. Their 90-year-old father and brother are sick, but with no access to medicine.
There is no communication or banking system access in much of the northern part of Ethiopia. And the United Nations and other humanitarian aid groups have struggled to get needed supplies into the region. There was a humanitarian blockade until April, and even since then, only 22% of the needed food has gotten to those in need, according to the U.N.
"It's very hard and very sad," Gebregiorgis said. "I didn't sleep or eat. I wake up in the middle of the night. I don't know what happened to my people."
For many Tigrayans living in central Ohio, the feeling of helplessness is the worst. Alemayoh and others have sought community through each other as well as Holy Trinity Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church in Old Oaks.
'At a standstill': Trump slashes refugee resettlement to record low, leaves some Columbus families torn apart
"It's really hard. I don't even want to think about it sometimes," said Alemayoh, who used to support her grandmother financially but now can't get money to her.
Today, she wonders if her grandmother — and her other relatives in the country — are even still out there.
She prays for the suffering to end.
"All I want is peace," Alemayoh said. "I never thought it was going to go this long. When the war broke out the first time, when I heard about it I thought it was going to be a week or two."
Rebuilding the infrastructure: Columbus nonprofit welcomes Afghans, hopes to become city's third resettlement agency
And as the war dragged on, Alemayoh was perplexed that the world allowed the violence to continue.
"After Rwanda (when 800,000 people were killed in 1994) I thought we were done looking at people getting slaughtered and getting killed and all this genocide getting committed," she said. "We said 'never again' but it's been two years. We're doing nothing."
'It's systematic'
Amnesty International has called the current conflict in Tigray "ethnic cleansing."
"They're exterminating the Tigrayan population," Alemayoh said.
Ethiopian and Amhara forces are targeting Tigrayans due to land disputes and ethnic differences, according to news reports and Amnesty International.
Local protest: Protest against Ethiopian government takes over Downtown intersection
There is widespread sexual violence by Ethiopian troops against Tigrayan women, which some say is being used as a way to extinguish the Tigrayans' ethnic identity since it is determined in Ethiopia by the father.
"It's systematic," said Aelaf Yfru, 27, of the East Side, who is originally from Tigray. "They're forced to not use their language, to hide their identity. People are being killed and being cleansed by the day."
'Serious human rights violations': 5 world conflicts besides the war in Ukraine that you should pay attention to
'We just want to make sure we're not forgotten'
Marta Gebreyhones has been passing out fliers about the crisis at Ohio State University, Downtown and Easton Town Center.
"Why is nobody caring about the humanity?" she said.
Some, including Gebreyhones, worry the lack of attention is due to race and the fact that Ethiopians are Black.
"People are not even caring about Africa," she said.
Still, she thinks there should be action.
Gebreyhones was born in the U.S., but spent three months in Tigray at one point. Her parents fled the region in the 1990s because of a civil war that was happening then, but she still has an uncle living there.
Connecting with the community: Radio links African migrants
Ohio Tegaru Youth, a group of Tigrayan youth ("Tegaru" is another way of saying Tigrayans), has reached out to U.S. lawmakers and the public about the issue.
And in May 2021, the Senate passed a resolution calling for a stop to the hostilities in Tigray, with U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) calling attention in a statement to "extra-judicial killings, mass sexual and gender-based violence, forced displacement, and civilian humanitarian aid blockades as being used as weapons of this war."
Bills have also been introduced this year in the House (H.R. 6600) and Senate (S. 3199) to promote peace and democracy in Ethiopia and impose related sanctions. Local Tigrayans are advocating for both to be passed.
President Joe Biden also imposed sanctions on anyone involved in human rights abuses there in September.
But, otherwise, there's been little movement in the U.S. government — though over 260,000 Ethiopians live here — when it comes to legislation regarding the conflict in Ethiopia.
"We want Ohio residents to understand this war going on, the genocide going on," Alemayoh said. "We're citizens of the United States, it's our Congress and Senate. There are bills out there we want to discuss."
'Taken advantage of': Refugee tenants report unfair evictions and discrimination by property managers
Neven Crvenkovic, a spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, acknowledged that Ethiopia is not the center of global attention anymore. But that doesn't mean the situation has dramatically improved, he said.
"We're still faced with huge humanitarian challenges in a country that is 10 million population," he said, speaking from Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. "It's definitely, definitely still a huge challenge."
More: Ethiopia's Tigray province reported to be ‘heavily bombarded’ by nation's military
As much of the nation's focus is on Ukraine, Alemayoh and others hope people will also pay attention to the suffering in Tigray.
"We feel like people don't know about it," she said. "We just want to make sure we're not forgotten ... We don't want 7 million people to be wiped out."
A touch of East Africa: Ethiopian spices add a kick to food at Flavor 91 Bistro in Whitehall
dking@dispatch.com
@DanaeKing