Daring AP team crosses front lines to report on Ethiopia’s Tigray rebels and war’s civilian victims
A fighter loyal to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front walks along a street in the town of Hawzen, then under the control of the TRLF, in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, May 7, 2021. While the government now holds many urban centers, fierce fighting continues in remote rural towns like Hawzen. Hours after this photo was made, government troops shelled the town; by the following day the town was back in government hands. (AP Photo / Ben Curtis)
By Rodney Muhumuza, Ben Curtis, Khaled Kazziha and Desmond Tiro
Since the conflict in the Tigray region of Ethiopia broke out seven months ago, news coverage has necessarily focused on those who fled the region. And AP journalists have delivered that coverage since November. But few journalists could reach areas under the control of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, the party of Tigray’s ousted and now-fugitive leaders. Access was refused by the Ethiopian military.
Until now.
A fighter loyal to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front mans a guard post on the outskirts of the town of Hawzen, then under the group’s control, in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, May 7, 2021. Control of Hawzen, a town of a few thousand people, has changed hands multiple times since fighting broke out between Tigrayan fighters and Ethiopian troops in November. – AP Photo / Ben Curtis
A fighter loyal to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, center, smokes a cigarette as he walks along a street in the town of Hawzen in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, May 7, 2021. The Tigray People’s Liberation Front headed a coalition that ruled Ethiopia for nearly three decades. That changed in 2018, when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed rose to power as a reformist. Abiy alienated the TPLF with efforts to make peace with its archenemy, Eritrea, and rid the federal government of corruption. – AP Photo / Ben Curtis
A boy departing by bus looks towards a fighter loyal to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, right, in the town of Hawzen in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, May 7, 2021. As the TPLF and the government forces fight in the region, civilians, and especially children, are suffering heavily. More and more children are caught up in shelling in Hawzen and nearby areas. – AP Photo / Ben Curtis
A fighter loyal to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, left, greets people on a street in the town of Hawzen in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, May 7, 2021. – AP Photo / Ben Curtis
Fighters loyal to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front walk past women selling foodstuffs on the street in the town of Hawzen, in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, May 7, 2021. – AP Photo / Ben Curtis
Fighters loyal to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front greet each other on the street in the town of Hawzen in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, May 7, 2021. – AP Photo / Ben Curtis
People walk past a destroyed tank in the town of Hawzen, then under the control of fighters loyal to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, May 7, 2021. – AP Photo / Ben Curtis
A destroyed tank sits by the side of a road leading to Abi Adi in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, May 11, 2021. – AP Photo / Ben Curtis
Ethiopian government soldiers ride a truck near Agula in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, May 8, 2021. – AP Photo / Ben Curtis
An Ethiopian government soldier climbs out of the broken windows of a building in Abi Adi, in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, May 11, 2021. In November 2020, asserting that Tigrayan fighters had attacked a military base, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent federal troops into Tigray. Government forces are now allied with militias from the Amhara ethnic group as well as soldiers from neighboring Eritrea, who are blamed for many atrocities. – AP Photo / Ben Curtis
A baby sits on his mother’s back as they wait to see a visiting doctor at a hospital in Hawzen which was damaged and looted by Eritrean soldiers who used it as a base, according to witnesses, in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, May 7, 2021. – AP Photo / Ben Curtis
A pharmacist, center, speaks to patients as he sits among the packages of medicine recovered in Hawzen, in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, on Friday, May 7, 2021. The hospital was damaged and looted by Eritrean soldiers who used it as a base, according to witnesses. – AP Photo / Ben Curtis
A woman leads a blind man to a visiting doctor, walking past destroyed furniture and other items in the driveway of a hospital in Hawzen which was damaged and looted by Eritrean soldiers who used it as a base, according to witnesses, in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, May 7, 2021. – AP Photo / Ben Curtis
A young boy looks out from railings as his mother queues with others to see a visiting doctor at a hospital in Hawzen which was damaged and looted by Eritrean soldiers who used it as a base, according to witnesses, in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, May 7, 2021. – AP Photo / Ben Curtis
AP’s Kampala, Uganda, correspondent Rodney Muhumuza and the Nairobi, Kenya-based team of senior producer Khaled Kazziha, photographer Ben Curtis and freelance cameraman Desmond Tiro made it through. While getting to Tigray was a feat in itself, the team spent days negotiating with someone willing to take the team to meet with fighters loyal to the TPLF in Hawzen, a town which had changed hands multiple times during the conflict. Access required passing through numerous dangerous military checkpoints.
Knowing the dangers of staying too long, the team limited themselves to less than an hour in the town. But working quickly they managed to obtain exclusive reporting on the fighters then occupying it, as well as a hospital destroyed and looted by Eritrean forces. Hours after the team left, government troops shelled the town. By the next day, it was back under government control.
In the regional capital Mekele,the AP team interviewed people who had fled Hawzen, including children who had had their limbs amputated. The multiformat story used the town as a microcosm to explain the challenges facing Ethiopian authorities as they battle fighters whose support among Tigray’s civilians appears to be growing — fueled by widespread reports of atrocities.
Haftom Gebretsadik, 17, from Freweini, Ethiopia, near Hawzen, who had his right hand amputated and lost fingers on his left after an artillery round struck his home in March, sits on his bed at the Ayder Referral Hospital in Mekele, in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, May 6, 2021. “I am very worried,” he said. “How can I work?” – AP Photo / Ben Curtis
Desalegn Gebreselassie, 15, sits in his wheelchair as he recovers at the Ayder Referral Hospital in Mekele, in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, May 6, 2021. The teenager’s foot was injured when a grenade exploded in his town of Edaga Hamus. – AP Photo / Ben Curtis
Akhberet Tadesa, 15, who is unable to feed herself and hasn’t spoken or walked unaided since a shell that exploded near her home left her in an apparent state of mental shock, is aided by her father Tadese Gebremedhin, left, and sister Fana, 13, right, at the Ayder Referral Hospital in Mekele, in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, May 6, 2021. – AP Photo / Ben Curtis
Mikiele Kahsay, 16, sits in a wheelchair at the Ayder Referral Hospital in Mekele, in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, May 6, 2021. The teenager was wounded when a shell landed near him as he was kicking a ball at a school field in Bizet. His leg had to be amputated because he was unable to get to hospital for four days, and gangrene set in. – AP Photo / Ben Curtis
Gebremedhin Gebreslassie, 12, who fled from fighting in the town of Hawzen, stands next to a metal shack at a reception center for displaced persons in Mekele, in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, May 9, 2021. Control of Hawzen, a town of a few thousand people, has changed hands multiple times since fighting broke out between Tigrayan fighters and Ethiopian troops in November. – AP Photo / Ben Curtis
Getting into Tigray had required persistence — a relentless pursuit of access through days spent convincing Ethiopian officials that whatever stories AP would tell would be balanced,deep and factual. AP explained it had no favoritism. But getting to Hawzen was even more fraught,as roads that were said to be open turned out to be blocked,and officials,even international NGO workers,were reluctant to talk. Keeping focused,looking for openings and having the skill to capitalize on them was critical throughout. Teamwork,efficiency,smart timing and luck made it possible, as well as guidance from AP’s global security team.
“You will die if you stay home,& you will die if you go out there….I would rather die alongside the fighters.” With striking photography, grantees @Roduza & Ben Curtis continue to report on the situation in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia for @AP. https://t.co/9Li924P1DW
The exclusive work in all formats,produced with the support of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting,was used widely,including prominent use by key clients such as Al Jazeera,while the consumer video edit had more than 35,000 hits on YouTube in just three days.
For smart,careful and courageous reporting to become the first outside journalists since the conflict started to interview fighters loyal to the TPLF,Muhumuza,Curtis, Kazziha and Tiro earn AP’s Best of the Week award.
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