Canadian Foodgrains Bank is calling for supporters, advocates and all parties involved to pray for a peaceful resolution to the ongoing political violence in Ethiopia.
The Foodgrains Bank is closely monitoring the situation in Ethiopia, where an escalating conflict that began a year ago in the Tigray region of the country between rebels and the Ethiopian government has caused thousands of people to flee. Many have fled across the border into Sudan, and many other thousands are still in the country, but living far from home.
“We’re extremely concerned that a conflict in an otherwise peaceful country has come to this,” says Foodgrains Bank executive director Andy Harrington. “When the fighting first broke out a year ago, about 80 percent of the harvests in Tigray were destroyed.”
A truck of emergency food arrives for Tigray internally displaced people.
“The level of hunger people in the Tigray region are experiencing right now because of the conflict is horrific. We are also seeing people in other parts of the country, particularly in the Afar and Amhara regions, experiencing high and growing levels of hunger as well,” says Harrington.
The Foodgrains Bank currently has eight projects ongoing in Ethiopia. For example, through our member Development and Peace and their partner Catholic Relief Services, we are responding to the food needs of people affected by the conflict. This project is receiving support from the Government of Canada. Through Foodgrains Bank member Tearfund Canada and their local partner the Ethiopian Kale Hewet Church, a recently ended project provided emergency food to about 1,800 households who fled Tigray to the neighbouring province of Amhara.
“The Foodgrains Bank, through its members, has had a presence in Ethiopia for almost 40 years,” says Harrington. “We’re committed to continuing to pray for the country, its people, and supporting the local partners working diligently to get emergency food to those who need it the most.”
