‘Don’t know if they are alive’: anguish of Tigrayan families cut off by telecom shutdown

Ethiopia’s Gotytom Gebreslase, right, with her marathon gold medal in Oregon and runner-up Judith Korir of Kenya. Photograph: CJ Gunther/EPA

When the Ethiopian long-distance runner Gotytom Gebreslase won the women’s marathon gold at the World Athletics Championships in Oregon this month, her jubilation was tinged with sadness: she had broken the championship record, but could not celebrate with her family.

“My mother and father would have been delighted,” she said in a brief interview with the BBC, before bursting into tears.