‘I didn’t know if my mother was alive’: joy and grief as Tigray reconnects to the world

Ethiopian Airlines restarted flights to Tigray on 28 December, meaning some families could reunite for Ethiopian Orthodox Christmas last weekend. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

When Lemlem read online that phone lines had been restored to parts of Ethiopia’s war-torn Tigray region last month, she spent the entire night trying to call her elderly mother, who lives in the Tigrayan town of Adwa.

“I tried maybe 20 or 30 times but the call wouldn’t go through,” Lemlem said from her home in Maryland in the US. “When I finally heard her voice, it was so emotional. We were crying together and I was just so happy. For two years, I didn’t know if she was alive.”