As fighting rages on in Ethiopia’s war-torn Tigray region, one of the world's longest telecommunications shutdowns is hampering aid deliveries, hurting business and keeping families apart.
So far this year, the ICRC has facilitated some 116,000 phone calls and oral messages "between family members separated by conflict and violence", said spokesperson Alyona Synenko. With almost half of the region's six million people in severe need of food, the shutdown as well as road blockades have hampered humanitarian aid deliveries, according to the U.N. World Food Programme.
She had just been crowned world champion, but Ethiopian marathon runner Gotytom Gebreslase broke down in tears when asked if her family was celebrating her win back home in war-torn Tigray.
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