MEKELE, Ethiopia (AP) — The memories are so painful that Birhanu Haile sometimes forgets to eat. He is one of thousands of ethnic Tigrayans clinging to a marginal existence after fleeing their homes amid a conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region that has left countless dead. No one knows how many hundreds of thousands of Tigrayans have left their homes during the war. “I don’t want to think of going back,” says one student who recalled stepping on bodies as she fled. The fighting remains intense in some rural areas, complicating efforts to reach communities where some fear the real toll is yet to be known.
