Living In Limbo: Tigray’s Displaced Left Without Protection Or Path To Return

Nearly five years after war uprooted them, hundreds of thousands of Tigrayans remain in makeshift camps, living under precarious conditions that blur the line between survival and slow erasure, a recent report discloses.

A new special assessment report titled The Plight of Internally Displaced Persons in Tigray concluded by the Commission of Inquiry on Tigray Genocide offers one of the most extensive assessments yet of displacement in the region, documenting harrowing accounts of insecurity, blocked returns, and a deep sense of injustice.

While the Pretoria cessation of hostilities agreement (CoHA) raised hopes of safe return, the study finds that “displacement in Tigray is not merely a humanitarian crisis but a justice crisis.”

A team of researchers at the Commission collected data at no less than 92 sites across Tigray, including displacement shelters and within host communities, where more than half of the estimated one million IDPs in Tigray reside, according to Kahsay Debesu, one of the researchers.

The purpose was to identify possible differences in living conditions between IDPs in camps and those integrated into towns, according to Kahsay. The study gathered information directly from the displaced themselves, but also triangulated it with data from humanitarian organizations working with IDPs, as well as government bodies—particularly the social affairs offices at zonal and local levels.

Interviews were conducted in all three categories, Kahsay told The Reporter.

“Two types of questionnaires were used. The first focused on the general living conditions of IDPs: how they are surviving now, what challenges they face daily. The second examined their displacement journeys—from the moment they were forced to flee, the dangers they faced along the way, including attacks, human rights violations, killings, and physical injuries, up until their arrival at the current IDP sites,” he explained.

The research also observed that security challenges remain unresolved. The promised terms of the Pretoria agreement have not been fully implemented, and without guaranteed safety, displaced communities are mostly unable to return home.

The study provides a comprehensive and alarming account of the protracted suffering endured by IDPs in Tigray. The findings, drawn from over 5,200 respondents across 92 IDP sites and from IDPs living in host-communities in 18 cities and sub-cities in all zones under the Tigray Interim Administration (TIA) found that displacement has been forced by members of the Ethiopian National Defense Forces (ENDF), Eritrean Defense Forces (EDF) and militias from the neighboring Amhara region.

According to the Commission’s report, these forced displacements were often accompanied by serious human rights violations, including targeted killings, mass sexual violence including insertion of foreign elements to victims’ vaginas, torture, starvation, enforced disappearance and inhumane treatment.

For many IDPs, displacement has not provided safety but only a fragile pause from violence. The report details repeated accounts of harassment, extortion, and gender-based violence in IDP sites themselves.

One survivor cited in the study put it plainly, “Even here, we do not sleep in peace. We are watched, we are threatened, and we do not trust anyone with authority to protect us.”

The insecurity is compounded by fears of renewed conflict. Many IDPs recall being forcibly evicted by ENDF, EDF, and Amhara militias.

“Protection failures are not accidental,” the study warns, but part of a systematic neglect of IDP rights under both national and international law.

Women and girls bear the brunt of these risks. Accounts of sexual violence, sometimes multiple assaults by different armed actors, remain widespread. Yet psychosocial and medical support is nearly absent. The report highlights that survivors are left untreated, stigmatized, and silenced.

Children and persons with disabilities face similar vulnerabilities. Excluded from food aid due to flawed biometric systems, many are simply erased from assistance lists.

“Some IDPs report being told they were ‘erased from the system’ or that ‘their data was lost,’ leaving them completely cut off,” the report noted.

Alongside insecurity, Kahsay points out that famine conditions persist, and shelters are in a state of collapse.

“The plastic sheeting used for temporary shelters is over three years old—far beyond the six months to one-year lifespan humanitarian standards recommend. When researchers visited, the rainy season had not yet begun, but already most shelters could not withstand sun or rain. Later observations showed people standing in knee-deep water inside their tents,” he told The Reporter.

According to him many photographs were taken during the field visits, but only a few were included in the report as illustrations.

“The reality is grim: families still exposed to the elements, unable to protect themselves,” said Kahsay.

The report also described the obstacles preventing the return of IDPs to their homes.

The Pretoria peace deal of November 2022 promised the voluntary, safe, and dignified return of IDPs. Three years later, this promise remains unfulfilled. The report makes clear that “return is obstructed in areas still under occupation by Amhara and Eritrean forces”.

A displaced farmer cited in the report described his failed attempt to go back to his home: “I returned once to see my land, but it was taken by others. They told me I had no right to it anymore.”

Infrastructure destruction compounds the challenge. Homes, schools, and clinics in return areas are in ruins. For many, going back would mean entering a wasteland without security guarantees.

“Without accountability and restitution, return would simply mean a return to oppression,” the report notes.

Survey data underscores this reluctance. The majority of IDPs listed security, restitution of property, and justice for past crimes as prerequisites for return. Without these, most expressed a preference for continued displacement rather than a coerced homecoming.

If return is blocked, IDPs will have little choice but to remain in a life of enduring injustice. Interviewees consistently spoke of exclusion, humiliation, and erasure.

“We are alive, but we are not living. Our names are erased from the lists, we cannot work, we cannot teach. We are like shadows,” said a former teacher who took part in the survey.

Aid distribution is often politicized, with vulnerable groups excluded. Food rations—when available—are inadequate, irregular, and sometimes rotten, the report noted.

Some IDPs are forced to sell part of their rations to cover milling costs, creating what the report calls “a striking paradox” in which the displaced are forced to sell food aid in order to eat the remaining portion.

For survivors of sexual violence, injustice is both personal and structural. One woman recounted being raped twice, first by EDF soldiers and later by Amhara militia. She later discovered she was HIV positive, but treatment is inconsistent.

“It’s dangerous to miss HIV medication. Sometimes they tell me the drugs aren’t available. What if I get malaria too? They just tell me to buy the medicine, but how am I supposed to afford it?” she is cited as saying.

The sense of abandonment is palpable.

“We have no court, no police, no one to hear us. We are left only with God,” said an elderly man sheltering in Shire.

The report concludes that displacement in Tigray is “a crisis of protection, accountability, and political will”.

While the federal government bears primary responsibility, the study emphasizes that the international community also has a duty under international law to step in where states fail to protect.

The report’s key commendations include guaranteeing security in camps and return areas through neutral forces and community-based protection.

It also emphasized the need to facilitate voluntary and dignified return, including restitution of land and rebuilding of destroyed infrastructure, establishing justice and accountability mechanisms, including truth-telling, reparations, and prosecution of atrocity crimes, and strengthening humanitarian access and depoliticizing aid, especially for women, children, and people with disabilities.

Exploring durable solutions beyond return, such as local integration and resettlement, where return is unsafe were also included among the recommendations.

The report closes with a sobering warning: “Displacement in Tigray will not end with tents and rations. It will only end when people feel safe, regain their rights, and see justice done.”

In its balance of data and testimony, the report underlines a stark reality: the war has ended, but displacement has not. Without meaningful protection, safe return, and justice, Tigray’s displaced risk becoming a forgotten population, trapped in limbo between fragile peace and permanent loss.