A father told the BBC that his wife was forced to give birth to twin girls while they were hiding from soldiers because of the brutal conflict that plagues the Tigray region in Ethiopia. She died days later and the widower ended up putting the twins in a basket and fled the conflict to seek refuge in neighboring Sudan.
Together with his five-year-old son and 14-year-old brother-in-law, he is now in a refugee camp, where an American doctor is helping to care for the twins.
The battle for control of Tigray – which is at the heart of the ancient civilization of Aksum – is in its third month.
The Tigray People’s Liberation Front and forces led by the Ethiopian military are fighting for power in a conflict fraught with ethnic tensions.
The conflict has displaced nearly two million people, with some 60,000 fleeing to Sudan.
Each displaced person has a story to tell – how they felt when they heard the first shot; how they hid in caves in the midst of aerial bombardments and how they were shot and sexually abused.
Many also remember how they overcame adversity and traveled days, without food and water, to reach a safe place.
This is the story of the widower Abraha Kinfe:
I am 40 years old. My late wife, Letai Tsegay, was 29 years old. We were married 13 years ago and had three children together.
We lived on a farm near the city of Mai-Kadra, in western Tigray. On November 10, federal troops advanced to our area and passed our home. They didn’t notice us. It was a great relief.
So we went to hide in the woods near our home with four of our neighbors. My wife was experiencing severe labor pains, but I was afraid to take her to the clinic in Mai-Kadra.
My wife gave birth to twin girls in the bush with the help of a woman who was hiding with us. Thank God for that.
Later that day, we returned home. Unfortunately, Letai was unable to receive postpartum treatment. She was unable to receive the injection that would stop her bleeding. After about 10 days, Letai passed away.
I was totally heartbroken. With our four neighbors, we buried her on our farm.
I would have liked to have taken her to the clinic, but at the time things were upside down in the city and people were running away to save their lives. It remains a ghost town.
Five years ago, my family and I were displaced from the city of Metama [in the neighbouring Amhara region] due to ethnic struggles.
We moved to the Mai-Kadra area to rebuild our lives from scratch. The local administrator assigned us a piece of land for agriculture.
In our new location, we built a small wooden and clay house. It was a comfortable place for me and my wife. Our son was born there. Even my twin daughters were born there, only to leave 20 days later.
When my wife died, I felt the world collapse around me. I cried and cried holding her in my arms. I hated the bloody war, which brought us total suffering.
My beloved wife, mother of my children, died because she was unable to get basic medical treatment.
As the situation was still dangerous, my neighbors left for Sudan. I stayed behind, with the twins, my son and my brother-in-law.
We used to go and hide in the bush whenever we saw troops. It was very difficult to take care of twins alone, without neighbors too.
Babies of this age need the mother to breastfeed them. I supported them by giving them drops of water, sugar, dipping my finger in soup-like food, allowing them to suck several times.
After about 20 days, I went to the federal army stationed in the area and asked if I could take my twins to the clinic in Humera, another nearby city.
Fortunately, they allowed me to pass, but then I walked to the Tekeze River and crossed it by boat to reach Hamdayit, Sudan. I took the twins in a basket and the other two children were also with me.
We are now receiving shelter in the Hamdayit refugee camp. An American Red Cross doctor is taking care of the twins.
She is providing the necessary support and checking her development every three days. God bless her for her kindness and the support she has given to all refugees.
Christening Twins
The twins are now over two months old. I can see that they are gaining weight. But my five-year-old son misses his mother so much – he constantly asks for her. It breaks my heart. I hate to lie telling him that one day she will join us.
I continually struggle to understand why Letai is no longer with us. Life is really hard. Here are my twins, and I confess that they are constant reminders of my wife who died in my arms.
Refugee companions sympathize with the situation and do their best to console me.
They suggest naming the Eden twins [after the Biblical story about expulsion from the Garden of Eden], and Trefi believing that his survival is already a miracle of God. Trefi means “stick around” in Tigrinya [widely spoken in Tigray and neighbouring Eritrea].
According to the orthodox Christian tradition, girls must be baptized on the 80th day after birth. That day is coming; but there is no religious service in this refugee camp.
I still suffer from sadness and I pray to God to give me the strength to raise my children in a safe environment. I hope this miserable conflict will end and we can all resume life where we left off.
More about the Tigray crisis:
Deep down, I still struggle to understand why peace and security were taken from us. Why do we have to suffer like this?
Why are we denied a safe existence, while others, those who brought this tragedy upon us, are satisfied with comfort and stability?
They are raising their children without trials and tribulations. Their children are enjoying the warmth of their homes, are being cared for by their parents and go to school and play in their neighborhoods.
‘The pain is immense’
My thoughts go back to the day I left Metema and settled in the Mai-Kadra area five years ago. I worked hard to establish myself in the community and worked hard from dawn to dusk to pay the bills. I was fine to support my family.
I used the land assigned to me and rented other land to generate more income. I used to have good harvests of sesame and sorghum.
But here I am now, with nothing to do, no land to cultivate, no wife to love, no community to be a part of, no church to go to.
I also think about the crops I was about to harvest. I can’t help thinking about the past, what we used to have, what life was like, how my children played, while I try to deal with life as a refugee. The pain is immense; my kids don’t deserve this.
Everything was suddenly taken from me due to the meaningless ethnic conflict between the Amhara and Tigray people.
There are tens of thousands of refugees in camps in Sudan, and we are all from Tigray. I can see that we have been seriously affected by the conflict.
I hope that this war will end soon and that peace will prevail. We wish to return home so that we can resume our lives in the land of our parents and ancestors.