Hunger looms in Tigray’s refugee camps: ‘What does Trump eat? Here we ration lentils to make them last’

Just outside the heart of Mekele (Ethiopia), at the 70 Kare IDP Center — the country’s largest refugee camp — 35-year-old Leterbrhan shakes a plate with a few lentils from side to side. She plays with the sound as she asks: “What does Trump eat? Here, we ration lentils like they’re a treasure.” Leterbrhan has a one-year-old daughter. She lives in the camp because she was displaced from her home by the Tigray War (2020–2022), considered the bloodiest conflict of the 21st century. Despite the signing of a peace agreement, many civilians still live in displacement camps under precarious conditions. Now, they’re also suffering the consequences of the suspension of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), ordered by President Donald Trump at the start of 2025.Ximena Borrazás

This is not the first time Ethiopia has faced hunger without USAID’s assistance. After several audits in May 2023, USAID suspended its food aid activities for five months after detecting, as they claimed, that humanitarian aid was being sold on the local market. Aid was resumed, but at a reduced level. Another place affected by this pause, in addition to the 70 Kare IDP center, was the Haki IDP Center (pictured), a refugee center set up in what used to be the Haki Secondary School. Currently, 2,250 people live there, 35% of whom are children. “Since Trump took office as president of the United States, three people have left to embark on migration routes out of fear, desperation, and loss of hope. They are now imprisoned in Libya,” says Mehari Abadi, one of the coordinators at Haki.Ximena Borrazás

Gebreslassie Hailemichal, another coordinator at the Haki IDP Center, explains that the amount of wheat they were receiving gradually decreased. “In January, February, and March 2024, we received a 15-kilogram bag of wheat from USAID per person. From April to September, the amount changed from 15 to 12 kilograms per person. In October, November, and December, we were informed that we would receive 9,200 bir [$68] per family, but the reality is that they only paid for two of those three months,” he says. Then came the suspension of USAID. In the photograph, Genet Araya, 65, is in her room at the Haki IDP Center, where she has lived since October 2022, while talking about the impact of USAID's suspension in Tigray. "It is very difficult to express how I feel, how we feel. We are alone, and we know it. The only thing left is to pray to God for help or simply wait for death," Araya says.Ximena Borrazás

Mebrahtom Belay, the head of USAID in Tigray, continues in managing the remaining resources that were already approved by the previous U.S. administration. "We stopped working on January 24, 2025," he says. "Our major problem has been that the budget is managed at the national level, and despite our request for better communication, from Tigray we rarely knew what the budget was for most of the campaigns," he adds during an informal interview.Ximena Borrazás

Tirhas Teweldemdh, also a refugee at the Haki IDP center, holds her young daughter in her arms. “Why does [Trump] ignore us before the peace agreement [signed in Pretoria, South Africa, in 2022] is fully implemented? He is the richest man in the world; we are the poorest. He plays with our hunger, why does he do this? I would tell Trump that if I could speak to him,” says the 30-year-old woman as she rocks her baby. “We have no options, there’s no hope, all we can do is wait to die,” she says.Ximena Borrazás

USAID not only financed food security programs. It also supported services for the health sector, human resource management, technical training for health workers, public infrastructure rehabilitation, computer systems for the health sector, and medical equipment, among other programs. "The budget for rehabilitating 40% of public facilities had been approved, but sadly, it has now been interrupted," says Mebrahtom Belay, head of USAID in Tigray. One of the programs that has been severely affected is the fight against HIV, a disease that dramatically increased due to the war. According to data provided by the Multi-Sectoral Oral Response Office for HIV Prevention and Control, 3% of Tigray’s population (about 5.5 million people) has contracted the disease. Eighty-five percent of sex workers are HIV-positive, and 5.5% of the population in refugee centers has contracted the virus.Ximena Borrazás

According to Fissha Brhane, an HIV expert at the Tigray Health Office, the budget allocated by USAID for the distribution of condoms and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) was $720,000 annually, distributed among 50,000 adolescents and sex workers. Belay explains that although some programs — such as the HIV program — had strict controls, this was not the case for others. Despite this, he believes that "what Trump did is not correct." "It's true that there should have been more thorough audits, but punishing innocent people in this way for the mismanagement of a few is not the solution," he adds.Ximena Borrazás

Some 100 miles from the capital of Tigray lies Adwa, one of the cities most devastated by the war due to its proximity to Eritrea. In one of its refugee centers, Ngsti, 75, prepares coffee inside her dark and cool room under the watchful eye of a friend who traveled from Aksum to accompany her. The elderly woman has no family, is nearly blind and deaf. Between sips of coffee, she laments Donald Trump's decision. "We are here, Mr. President, facing many problems every day. We haven't returned to our homes, we are dying of hunger, we have no power, no water, no medicine. Why have you withdrawn your support? Please help us return to our home," the woman says.Ximena Borrazás