Stopping food aid in Ethiopia from the United States and United Nations caused severe hunger that has killed hundreds of people in the northern Tigray region in recent weeks, and one local bishop said the situation is "beyond human imagination."

COVID, plus civil war and years of crippling drought, have dimmed the prospects for democracy in Ethiopia, made the lives of hundreds of thousands of refugees more difficult, devastated the country’s basic social infrastructure of schools, hospitals, clinics and social services.

“Seeing video footage of hungry families in agony breaks one’s heart,” Argaw Fantu writes in an e-mail from his home base in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia.

Ethiopians, especially poor families in the war-devastated parts of the northern Tigray region, have been experiencing immense suffering from a conflict that remains largely unknown to Canadians. War started in the Tigray region in November 2020 between the Ethiopian National Defence Forces and the Tigray Defence Forces, and the conflict continues to this day.

With much of the world’s focus on the war in Ukraine, Ethiopian Catholic leaders world-wide have been calling on the international community not to forget the thousands of people impacted by conflict in the East African nation’s Tigray region.

NAIROBI, Kenya -- International human rights organizations have warned of a new wave of atrocities in the Ethiopian region of Tigray, as Catholic Church leaders continued to express concerns over the detention of priests, nuns and lay members.

NAIROBI, Kenya -- Bishop Tesfaselassie Medhin of Adigrat called for an immediate end to aerial bombardment in Tigray, the Ethiopian region where a deadly conflict has unfolded since last November.

There are 20 million people in dire need in Ethiopia, a civil war is raging, drought is devouring crops and funding from donor nations to the United Nations humanitarian response has so far fallen $1.3 billion (U.S.) short, but Development and Peace is not giving up.

For the Ethiopian Orthodox Church of Canada congregation at St. Mary Cathedral in Toronto, prayer vigils for peace in their homeland have been ongoing for the past 30 years.

NAIROBI, Kenya -- Ethiopian government forces raided a centre run by the Salesians of Don Bosco in Addis Ababa Nov. 5 and arrested 17 people, including priests, religious brothers and employees.

Church networks are getting ready for a humanitarian disaster and a massive wave of new refugees as the civil war in Ethiopia rages on.

VATICAN CITY -- Pope Francis prayed for those killed during violent protests in Ethiopia, which left dozens of people dead.

OTTAWA – When Sr. Laura Girotto first set foot in Adwa, Ethiopia, in late 1993, it was hard to envision the miracle about to  unfold.

WASHINGTON – Four Catholic Relief Service staff members on their way to a training session in Nairobi, Kenya, were among the passengers aboard an Ethiopian Airlines flight that crashed moments after takeoff in the east African nation.

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia – Ethiopia's bishops welcomed the election of the nation's first female president, Sahle-Work Zewde, and said they were pleased that women "are getting their rightful place in the development of the country."