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Tigray War Forces Professor to Wonder if Family Still Alive

1 April 2021 1,574 views 4 Comments

Mulugeta Gebregziabher, a biostatistician and professor at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), has contended with more than a global pandemic this year. He doesn’t know if his family is still alive.

Twenty years ago, Gebregziabher and his wife left their hometown of Adwa, Ethiopia, for a better life in the United States. Now, there is a war in the Tigray region of Ethiopia, where his mother, brother, three sisters, and wife’s family still live. Gebregziabher has not spoken to his 79-year-old mother in more than four months.

The Tigray War began in November 2020. It is a conflict between Ethiopia’s prime minister and the government of the Tigray region led by the Tigray People’s Liberation front.

In an article on the MUSC website, Gebregziabher said, “It’s really hard to wrap my mind around what’s going on. What I tell people here, people who might not fully understand what is going on in Ethiopia, I tell them to imagine the US government teaming up with Cuba to attack Florida. That’s what this is like.”

Gebregziabher, an ASA Fellow, recently took time off to do humanitarian work for the region and raise funds. He is using ED-REAP, a 501(c)(3) organization he founded with four other professors in the US, to help with the rehabilitation efforts of the war-torn Tigray region and its people. “It helped a little bit,” he said. “I can’t just sit here while this is happening and not speak out.”

To read Gebregziabher’s story and more about what is happening in Ethiopia, visit the MUSC website.

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4 Comments »

  • Zenaw said:

    This is totally fake propaganda. The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) that Mulugeta vehemently supports is responsible for all the massacre happened/happening in Ethiopia during the last 27 years. Propagating such fake news is against the Ethical principles of ASA.

    Mulugeta and his people are using such fake propaganda to steal money from innocent Americans like what the TPLF stole over $30 Billion American tax payers dollars given to Ethiopia in a form of aid, but the TPLF stole it from the people of Ethiopia during their time of absolute power.

    Zenaw

    # 13 April 2021 at 11:03 am
  • Megan Murphy (author) said:

    This is a story about an ASA Fellow who hasn’t spoken to his family in months because they live in war-torn Tigray.

    # 15 April 2021 at 5:18 pm
  • Mulugeta Gebregziabher said:

    Dear Zenaw,
    I am not sure what you mean by ‘fake’? As Megan (thank u!) stated above, this is my personal story and you can’t know about my mom and family more than I do. It is unfortunate that you are using unrecognizable name to spread misinformation here. The harm you are inflicting on me by your words of denial and enabling, is not different from the actions of the perpetrators of the war crimes on my family and the people of Tigray. I hope you are not the ASA fellow who was recently interviewed by Rob Prince of Boulder Colorado NPR who failed to denounce the ongoing genocide of the Tigray people, but rather tried to justify the ongoing war. It is unfathomable to me why you or the other ASA fellow would go such a distance to deny the undeniable facts on the ground. There are now undeniable corroborative evidences (reported by the UN, EU, USA and several media agencies) of the massacres and ethnic cleaning of Tigrayans. These have to stop for the goodness of humanity!
    To provide more context to my agony and that of many Tigrayans in the diaspora, I would like to add a link to an interview of Dr. Tedros of WHO as reported in the New York Times today.
    The Anguish of the World’s Doctor: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/24/opinion/sunday/tedros-ethiopia-tigray.html

    # 24 April 2021 at 9:29 pm
  • Angelo Aragi said:

    Dear Mulugeta,
    Sooner or later, the whole world will know the truth about what is going on in Ethiopia. Educated people like you, WHO director are using your platform, along with Western media to spread often times false and biased information. The people of Tigray are Ethiopian. The people of Oromo are Ethiopian. The people of Amhara are Ethiopian and the rest of all ethnics that make Ethiopia are Ethiopian. Do not try to divide us!
    TPLF does not represent the Tigray people. It is a terrorist group that use child soldiers to prompt its agenda and continue to inflict pain to the Tigray people. An educated person like you should try to find solution if you care for the people of Ethiopia. Please do not drag the Tigray people into the war topic.
    Btw, you do not need to know Zenaw or he does not need to be a recognizable name like you or the WHO Director. He has the right for his opinion.

    # 20 November 2021 at 1:53 pm