Tigray's capital Mekele is slowly crawling back to normality 19 months after a peace deal ended one of the world's deadliest recent conflicts.
“When there is peace like this, people can focus on their livelihoods,” the 48-year-old told AFP, voicing hope that jobless young people will now be able to find work here rather than hunt for opportunities elsewhere. Tigray also has the highest number of people internally displaced by conflict within Ethiopia, at more than 831,000, according to an International Organization for Migration report published last month covering November-December.
Since the guns fell silent, access to key services including banking, electricity and internet has resumed in some parts of Tigray, although power is intermittent and internet outages occur — as they do across the entire country.Hermon Gebremariam’s tailor’s shop is a hive of activity as workers swiftly run up men’s jackets and other garments on sewing machines, piles of shirts in clear plastic wrappers stacked behind them.
The residents AFP spoke to in Mekele did not want to be drawn about their experiences from the war itself, preferring to focus on keeping the peace and the way forward.Across the city, earthmovers flatten huge mounds of dirt to make way for the new roads as labourers build walls made of concrete and metal bars.
“Our planning was based on these discussions, adopting a bottom-up approach due to limited resources and extensive destruction,” he said.“In some areas, roads were demolished; in others, the electricity grid was malfunctioning, or the drainage system was not working,” Weres told AFP.“When we approved the plan, we had no budget. Our employees’ salaries were unpaid, we lacked vehicles, and we had no funds to buy fuel for the vehicles,” he said.
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