Steven Were Omamo served as the Country Director of the United Nations World Food Programme in Ethiopia from 2018 until the end of 2021. In 2018, Ethiopians witnessed the first non-violent political transition in their history. The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), an ethnicity-based political group that had governed the country for 27 years from 1991 to 2018, was sidelined after years of protests, and a new Prime Minister took power
In November 2020, the TPLF attacked the largest Ethiopian national army base in the Tigray region, initiating a war to regain power. During that time, the TPLF and Tigray advocates claimed that the Ethiopian federal government was blocking aid from reaching the Tigray region, causing a famine.
In his new book, ‘At the Center of the World in Ethiopia,’ Omamo asserts that it is not true that the Ethiopian Government blocked aid or used starvation as a weapon, as alleged by some in the international community. Omamo says insecurity due to fighting was the primary impediment to delivering humanitarian assistance and that there was no evidence of famine in Tigray during the war. His book sheds light on ‘politics-infected’ decision-making, racism, and bias that, at times, hindered the agency’s humanitarian work.
You can watch Hermela Aregawi’s full interview with author Steven Were Omamo by clicking on the image above.
