Ethiopia: Tigrayans flee as fresh conflict erupts

11-year-old Asmara holds her 1-year-old brother Barakat at the doorway to their living space at Tsehaye primary school in the town of Shire, which has been turned into a temporary shelter. Four months after the Ethiopian government declared victory over the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), tens of thousands of Tigrayans are again being forced to flee their homes.

Displaced Tigrayans queue for food at the temporary shelter. These people weren't driven from their homes by fighting between the Ethiopian government and the rebels. According to witnesses and members of Tigray's new administration, regional forces and militiamen from neighboring Amhara are now violently trying to settle a decades-old land dispute in the Tigray region.

The town of Adigrat in Tigray, which is also considered a strategically important gateway to Eritrea. Amhara officials say about a quarter of Tigrayan land was taken from them during the almost 30 years that the TPLF dominated power in the region. However, Tigrayan officials say the area is home to both ethnic groups and the borders are set by the constitution.

Ethiopian soldiers on the back of a truck near Adigrat. Fighters from Amhara first entered Tigray in support of federal Ethiopian forces during the TPLF conflict. They have remained in the region since the fighting subsided, with local officials accusing them of driving out Tigrayans.

A man carries mattresses into the Tsehaye primary school in Shire. The latest territorial dispute threatens to worsen an already precarious humanitarian situation. According to Tewodros Aregai, the interim head of Shire’s northwestern zone, the town was already hosting 270,000 people before the latest influx of refugees and is running out of food and shelter.

A bus carrying displaced Tigrayans arrives in Shire. It is difficult to verify the exact number of people who have fled in recent weeks, as some have been displaced several times. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says some 1,000 arrive in Shire every day, while the Norwegian Refugee Council says between 140,000-185,000 arrived over a two-week period in March.

Displaced Tigrayans try to make themselves at home at the Shire campus of Aksum University, which has also been turned into a temporary shelter. The four centers set up in the town to house new refugees are almost full. Some families squeeze into classrooms, halls and half-finished buildings, while others make do camping under tarpaulins or on open ground.

A woman holds an infant inside a temporary refugee shelter at the Adiha secondary school in Tigray's capital, Mekelle. Many of the Tigrayans who have fled their homes have described attacks, looting and threats by Amhara gunmen, with some bearing scars from their ordeal.

A burned-out tank near the town of Adwa stands as a stark reminder of the simmering conflict in the Tigray region. The United Nations has already warned of possible war crimes taking place in Tigray, while US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said ethnic cleansing is taking place and called on Amhara forces to withdraw from Tigray.