{"id":13815,"date":"2022-04-04T05:51:00","date_gmt":"2022-04-04T05:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/?p=13815"},"modified":"2022-04-05T05:58:29","modified_gmt":"2022-04-05T05:58:29","slug":"i-dont-know-if-theyre-alive-or-dead-humanitarian-crisis-in-tigray-felt-in-ottawa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/?p=13815","title":{"rendered":"‘I don’t know if they’re alive or dead’: Humanitarian crisis in Tigray felt in Ottawa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source: CTV News – Ottawa<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Residents in Ottawa are feeling the humanitarian crisis in the Tigray region of Ethiopia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey left us a message saying, \u2018Please help us, we are starving,\u2019\u201d said Azeb Gebrehiwot, an Ottawa resident who has family in Tigray and part of the Association of Tigrayan Communities in Canada. \u201cImagine how painful it is to hear that and not being able to call them back.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a voice message that Gebrehiwot waited for months to hear, confirmation that at least her nephew is alive in Tigray.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if they are alive or dead; if they\u2019re starving to death,\u201d she said. \u201cI think about my nieces and my nephews.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She says her entire family is in the Tigray region, an area of Ethiopia where a war has been underway for more than a year. Blockades prevented food and aid from reaching millions. It is the world\u2019s worst hunger crisis in a decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UN estimates that 90 per cent of the six million people in the region are in urgent need for humanitarian assistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A convoy of food aid trucks finally entered the region on Friday. It was the first since mid-December.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen it comes to genocide, we should not be watching idly,\u201d said Gebrehiwot. \u201cThe whole world should be rallying together to end a genocide.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dozens of protesters took to the streets in Ottawa\u2019s ByWard Market on Saturday<\/a> to show support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are trying to raise money to send 40 medical kits to Tigray, we have raised $20,000 and we are trying to raise $20,000 more,\u201d said Tsion Tekie, of United Tegaru Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Supporters are trying to put pressure on the Canadian government to enforce sanctions and save people from dying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, but unfortunately it\u2019s a crisis that much of the world doesn\u2019t even know about,\u201d said Feben Gebru, who lives in Ottawa and is an activist for the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Gebrehiwot, the worry never ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cImagine the guilt and the shame that you feel,\u201d she said, \u201cbeing unable to help your family and not being able to send them money because there\u2019s no banking service in Tigray.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She believes her nephew was able to get through to her in the voicemail because of help from the International Red Cross.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, she waits and hopes to hear from them again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Organizers say the fundraising efforts are being put together by\u00a0United Tegaru Canada.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Protestors demonstrate in Ottawa’s ByWard Market in support of Tigray. April 2, 2022 (Jeremie Charron\/CTV News Ottawa)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: CTV News – Ottawa Residents in Ottawa are feeling the humanitarian crisis in the Tigray region of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13816,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[222,32],"class_list":["post-13815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","tag-ctv-news","tag-english"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/1-9.png",1020,574,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/1-9-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/1-9.png",300,169,false],"medium_large":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/1-9.png",640,360,false],"large":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/1-9.png",640,360,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/1-9.png",1020,574,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/1-9.png",1020,574,false],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/1-9.png",825,464,false],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/1-9.png",590,332,false],"woocommerce_thumbnail":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/1-9-300x300.png",300,300,true],"woocommerce_single":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/1-9-600x338.png",600,338,true],"woocommerce_gallery_thumbnail":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/1-9-150x150.png",100,100,true]},"author_info":{"info":["Axumawian Media"]},"category_info":"Article<\/a>","tag_info":"Article","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13815"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13815\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13818,"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13815\/revisions\/13818"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}