How an Australian woman survived the conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region

Aida travelled from Melbourne to the Tigray region of Ethiopia earlier this year to reconnect with her roots and meet family members for the first time.

Little did the 23-year-old know that by November, the region would be a war zone, leaving her family in Australia thinking she was dead.

“I had grown up hearing stories from my mum about the war that she fled from, and just her experience and everything she’d gone through,” Aida said.

Now safe in London, Aida recounted her escape from Ethiopia to the ABC and provided images from the journey from Tigray — a region made inaccessible to journalists since at least September.

She asked that her…