Displaced Tigrayans in Ethiopia camp ponder loss

For thousands of displaced Tigrayans, home is a dilapidated secondary school in the regional capital, Mekele.

More than 7,000 people have been registered at the Hadnet General Secondary School, although daytime numbers appear smaller when some venture into the city.

There are new arrivals each week at the school, which has been converted into a makeshift camp for the homeless.

Nothing is taken for granted here - but it's a wretched existence for the displaced.

They include some who once were wealthy landowners in the western part of Tigray, but had their land annexed by ethnic Amharas who say the land was originally theirs.

Wegahta Weldie is a 21-year-old accounting student from Mai Kadra, scene of the six-month-old conflict's first known massacre.

She and her family fled after first hiding in a maize field and walked hundreds of kilometers (miles) to reach Mekele.

"As we were fleeing, we would step on dead bodies. Many people had been killed and it was very dark. I could not tell whether they were my relatives or not," she says.

The young woman adds she knows of one Amhara who died in the Mai Kadra violence, but stresses that many victims were Tigrayans, like her.

Ethiopia's federal government says ethnic Amharas were killed in Mai Kadra by fighters of the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front (TPLF).

But many Tigrayans who have spoken to The Associated Press say they were targeted, too.

Ethiopian troops and allied forces, including soldiers from neighbouring Eritrea, pursued fighters loyal to the Tigray regional party.

The party's leaders long dominated the national government before being sidelined by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

The fighting remains intense in some areas, complicating efforts to help the displaced people or reach rural communities where some fear the real toll is yet to be known.

The United Nations human rights office has said all sides are accused of committing abuses against civilians.

But far more of the killings, rapes, and mass expulsions are attributed to Ethiopian forces, Amhara regional forces, or, especially, allied troops from Eritrea.

The Tigray conflict has displaced more than one million people, the International Organization for Migration reported in April, and the numbers continue to rise.

Many have fled to neighbouring Sudan, but others are scattered all over Tigray, in small groups of hundreds or thousands like at the secondary school in Mekele.

Most of them are women and children, including babies strapped to the backs of mothers queuing up for food, which is in short supply.

The community relies heavily on donations from aid workers and local well-wishers.

Birhanu Haile, who serves as the camp's coordinator, says the displaced want nothing more than return to their homes.

"They would like to rebuild their lives, to go back to their land, to farm it to go back to their trade. We want to be able to go back to our land again," he explains.

Birhanu himself found shelter at the school as one of the thousands of displaced.

He lost his land and his house in western Tigray has been occupied by ethnic Amhara who now claim the area as their own.

His wife and two children are refugees in Sudan. Two nephews were killed.

The memories are so painful that Birhanu Haile sometimes forgets to eat.

The international community is increasingly concerned about the fate of the estimated six million people of Tigray, which lies north of the federal capital, Addis Ababa.

There are concerns that the region might face mass starvation, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross.

ICRC spokesperson Alyona Synenko says farmers normally start to prepare for the next planting season about now.

Ethiopia only has one planting season, so if the displaced are unable to return to their land, extreme food shortage could be the result in the months, Synenko says.

The United States has cited "ethnic cleansing" in parts of western Tigray.

It was the first member of the international community to use a term that refers to forcing a population from a region through expulsions and other violence.

The federal government disputes the allegation of ethnic cleansing, saying no civilians were targeted in such a way.

Last week, Ethiopia's Council of Ministers designated the TPLF as a terrorist organisation, almost certainly ending hopes for peace talks.

But the TPLF, like some others in Ethiopia, is an ethnic-based party that has long represented the people of Tigray in accordance with the 1995 constitution.

The constitution enshrines ethnic federalism in the East African country of more than 110 million people and over 90 distinct ethnic groups.

Mekele has been held up by Ethiopia's government as an example as it asserts a return to normal in Tigray.

But the displaced at the Hadnet General Secondary School continue to cling to a marginal existence as they long for their homes.