“We Survived the Bombs, Only to Starve in Silence”
The Forgotten Deaths of Tigray’s Displaced After the Pretoria Peace Agreement
By Nayna Feleg
Tigray, Ethiopia —
In the suffocating heat of makeshift tents and abandoned school compounds, the displaced of Tigray are dying — not from shrapnel or airstrikes, but from hunger, thirst, disease, and silence. Since the signing of the Pretoria Peace Agreement in November 2022, at least 1,309 people have died in internal displacement camps across Tigray. The peace that was promised never reached them.
The numbers speak of catastrophe:
• Northwestern Tigray IDP Centers: 1,010 dead
• Central Tigray: 225 dead
• Eastern Tigray: 31 dead
• Mekelle and Surrounding Areas: 43 dead
Total deaths: 1,309 — and that is only a glimpse. Many more IDP shelters remain unvisited, uncounted, unknown.
Testimonies from the Edge of Existence
Inside the Adi Daero displacement center in Northwestern Tigray, 54-year-old Tesfay G. lost his wife and grandson within weeks of each other.
“She starved while waiting for food that never came. I carried her body to the edge of the camp and dug a grave with my hands,” he says, voice hollow. “They told us the war was over. For us, it never ended.”
At a shelter in Central Tigray, 12-year-old Mastewal clutches a faded photo of her father.
“He died coughing blood. They said it was TB, but there was no medicine. Not even clean water.” She has not been to school since 2020. “I want to go home. I want to eat. I want to be a girl again.”
In Mekelle, 26-year-old Selam Berhe gave birth to her daughter under plastic sheets last year. The baby died two months later.
“I wrapped her in my only shawl and prayed. I have no grave to visit. I buried my child in a war that was already ‘over.’”
“Peace” Without Protection
These civilians were not caught in crossfire. They survived the worst of the war, only to be abandoned in its aftermath. The Pretoria Peace Agreement promised cessation of hostilities — not cessation of responsibility.
“We were told help was coming. We waited. And waited. People started to die quietly, one by one. No one counted us. We counted ourselves — with graves.”
— Elder, IDP center in Shire
While state actors claimed success and international envoys praised diplomacy, thousands languished with no food, no healthcare, and no return pathway. No one came to protect the peace’s most fragile survivors.
A Call to the World
We demand an immediate, transparent investigation into the deaths of displaced Tigrayans after the signing of the Pretoria Peace Agreement. These deaths were preventable. Their suffering is a consequence of political failure and humanitarian neglect.
We call upon:
• The African Union and IGAD to uphold their responsibility to monitor the impact of the peace they brokered.
• The United Nations and human rights organizations to deploy rapid humanitarian assessments across Tigray’s displacement centers.
• The Ethiopian Federal Government and the Interim Tigray Administration to provide restitution, care, and safe return for the displaced.
• The international community to speak the names of the dead — not only in numbers, but in outrage.
Graves Under Tarps, Deaths in Silence
These are not statistics. These are children, mothers, elders, teachers, farmers — once alive, now buried behind tents, beneath tarps, in shallow unmarked graves.
Each death is a cry:
“See me.”
“Help us.”
“Tell the world we were here.”
Justice for the IDPs of Tigray.
Justice for the forgotten victims of a broken peace.