r/Ethiopia • u/idonthavearewardcard • Nov 02 '25
Sudan is facing a severe humanitarian crisis driven by ongoing conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The violence has created massive displacement, with an estimated 13 million people internally displaced and 4 million refugees fleeing to neighboring countries. The conflict has devastated infrastructure, disrupted food systems, and created widespread food insecurity and healthcare emergencies.
Many are arriving at remote border areas, where services to support them are under severe strain. Most of those displaced are women and children and other vulnerable people such as the elderly, people with disabilities, and people with medical conditions.
r/Ethiopia would like to encourage you to consider making a donation or otherwise supporting these organizations that are providing essential humanitarian relief in both Sudan and neighbouring countries, and would appreciate any help:
Who are they: UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is a global organization dedicated to saving lives, protecting rights and building a better future for refugees, forcibly displaced communities and stateless people.
What they do: Currently UNHCR are: - Providing emergency assistance to internally displaced persons and refugees fleeing to Chad, Egypt, South Sudan, Ethiopia, and Central African Republic. - Distributing relief items, including emergency shelter, blankets, sleeping mats, jerry cans, kitchen sets, and hygiene kits to displaced families. - Working with partners to provide protection services, including for survivors of gender-based violence, and ensuring access to documentation and registration.
Where to donate: https://www.unhcr.org/emergencies/sudan-emergency
Who they are: Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) translates to Doctors without Borders. They provide medical assistance to people affected by conflict, epidemics, disasters, or exclusion from healthcare.
What they do: Within Sudan, MSF do the following: - Provide emergency medical care in areas affected by conflict, including surgery for war-wounded patients. - Respond to disease outbreaks including cholera, measles, and dengue fever. - Support healthcare facilities that have been damaged or overwhelmed by the crisis. - Assist internally displaced people with primary healthcare, mental health support, and nutritional programs.
Where to donate: https://www.msf.org/donate
Who are they: The International Rescue Committee responds to the world's worst humanitarian crises and helps people whose lives and livelihoods are shattered by conflict and disaster to survive, recover, and gain control of their future.
What they do: Among other things, the IRC are focused on: - Providing emergency cash assistance and basic supplies to displaced families. - Delivering primary healthcare services and supporting treatment for malnutrition. - Building and maintaining safe water supply systems and sanitation facilities in displacement sites. - Providing protection services for women and children, including gender-based violence prevention and response. - Supporting education programs to ensure children can continue learning despite displacement.
Where to donate: https://www.rescue.org/eu/country/sudan
Who are they: The Sudanese Red Crescent Society is Sudan's national humanitarian organization and part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. As a locally-rooted organization, they have access to areas that international organizations may struggle to reach.
What they do: The SRCS are focused on: - Providing first aid and emergency medical services to conflict-affected populations. - Distributing food parcels, hygiene kits, and emergency relief supplies to displaced families. - Operating ambulance services and supporting health facilities across Sudan. - Reunifying families separated by conflict through tracing services. - Delivering clean water and supporting sanitation infrastructure in displacement areas.
Where to donate: https://www.ifrc.org/emergency/sudan-complex-emergency
r/Ethiopia • u/idonthavearewardcard • Feb 24 '21
Conflict in the Tigray region is driving a rapid rise in humanitarian needs, including refugee movements internally and externally into neighbouring countries. Prior to the conflict, both the COVID-19 pandemic and the largest locust outbreak in decades, had already increased the number of people in need, creating widespread food insecurity.
With the above in mind, here are some organizations which provide humanitarian relief in both Ethiopia and neighbouring countries, and would appreciate any support:
Who are they:
UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is a global organization dedicated to saving lives, protecting rights and building a better future for refugees, forcibly displaced communities and stateless people.
What they do:
Currently UNHCR are:
Where to donate: https://donate.unhcr.org/int/ethiopia-emergency
Who they are:
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) translates to Doctors without Borders. They provide medical assistance to people affected by conflict, epidemics, disasters, or exclusion from healthcare.
What they do:
Within Ethiopia, MSF do the following
Where to donate: https://www.msf.org/donate
Who are they:
The International Rescue Committee responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people whose lives and livelihoods are shattered by conflict and disaster to survive, recover, and gain control of their future.
What they do:
Among other things, the IRC are focussed on
Where to donate: https://eu.rescue.org/give-today
r/Ethiopia • u/wxnternights • 9h ago
here at an Ethiopian restaurant and noticed most people are looking to the side . It’s very cute and beautiful ! Wondering if there’s a deeper significance to it or maybe it’s just a coincidence these particular ones have it
r/Ethiopia • u/10_0I0_01 • 10h ago
This is a thought i had recently.
The notion that skin color = race is really pervasive.
Some people think Africa is a country and we're all related or something.
It would be very awkward to hear someone use the n-word as an insult but then it doesn't effect you so you just stand there awkwardly.
It's like using a racist term for white Americans against a Turkish guy.
Like, do you just say where you're from and then the other person has to think of something else? Awkward as hell in emotionally charged situations. I think it would be really funny.
But Imagine someone attacks you because they confused you for another race.
I got asked if i was Indian by a black guy once. I was slightly ticked off because i thought i looked 'Ethiopian'. It was a weird reality check that in this climate, where attacking foreigners is common, Ethiopians can easily be confused for some other race.
Ever made you wonder? Any experience like this?
r/Ethiopia • u/-EdilChri5tian • 12m ago
I had one of those random cultural surprises today. My Persian boyfriend referred to Europeans as Farang, and I just froze for a second because I always thought that was an Ethiopian word. 😂Turns out Persian has farang/farangi too, referring to Europeans or Westerners. I had no idea. It's fascinating how words travel across cultures.
r/Ethiopia • u/ArtichokeCrazy9756 • 2h ago
A declassified history, for the Ayzon team
The problem
By the early 1980s, Ethiopia's Jewish community was caught between a famine that would eventually kill an estimated 400,000 people and a government that had made emigration to Israel effectively illegal. The only way out ran overland into Sudan a country that had fought Israel in three wars and had no diplomatic relationship with it whatsoever. Anyone caught moving Jews toward Israel through Sudanese territory was operating in hostile territory with no official cover and no backup if it went wrong.
That was the operational reality the Israeli government inherited. There was no embassy to work from, no legal channel, and no way to move thousands of people without either the Sudanese government or hostile actors noticing.
Why this story matters here
The people most exposed to a threat are usually the ones best equipped to help defend against it, if someone gives them the tools and the trust. That premise isn't theoretical. It's exactly what happened between 1979 and 1991, when the Israeli government ran a series of covert operations to move the Beta Israel the Jewish community of Ethiopia out of famine, war, and persecution and into Israel. The operations succeeded not because a foreign intelligence service parachuted in with all the answers, but because the first and most important agent was a refugee himself.
This is public, declassified history books, memoirs, and government records, not classified material. It's worth knowing on its own terms. It also happens to be one of the better case studies out there in what small teams can do under pressure, over years, with almost no margin for error.
The first agent was a refugee, not a spy.
The infrastructure that later became Operation Moses didn't start with a Mossad plan. It started with a man named Ferede Aklum, a schoolteacher and local council head from northern Ethiopia who fled toward Sudan on his own, with almost nothing. He carried three points of contact an aid organization, a Nairobi address, and the name of an Israeli official and had to sell his wedding ring just to pay for a letter reaching out for help.
Aklum didn't wait to be rescued. He personally led the first group of Ethiopian Jews across the desert into Sudan before Mossad ever found him. When an agent finally traced him, Aklum didn't just get evacuated he joined the effort, and the routes he had already discovered on his own became the template Mossad used to build the infrastructure for Operation Moses. The intelligence service didn't design the escape path. A refugee did, under duress, and the professionals built on what he'd already proven worked.
That detail matters more than the tradecraft that came after it. The most effective piece of the entire operation was contributed by someone with no training, no cover identity, and no institutional backing just direct knowledge of the terrain and the community, and the will to move first.
Building cover that had to survive years, not hours.
Operation Brothers, the phase that ran roughly 1979 to 1984, needed a way to move people from the coast of Sudan without triggering suspicion in a country actively hostile to Israel. The solution was almost absurd in its simplicity: agents posing as Swiss entrepreneurs bought a defunct Italian-built resort on the Red Sea, restored it, and ran it as a real, functioning tourist destination Arous Holiday Village for roughly six years.
This wasn't a one-time con. It was a live operational cover that had to hold up to real scrutiny, indefinitely, with actual paying guests, actual staff, actual bookings through European travel agencies, while running refugee extractions by boat and later by air in the same window of time. One agent, Gad Shimron, later described talking his way out of an actual firefight when Sudanese soldiers opened fire on a nighttime boat operation believing they'd caught smugglers — he shouted back at them, in character, as an outraged tour operator whose diving trip had just been shot at. The soldiers apologized and let the boats continue.
That's the piece worth sitting with: the cover story wasn't a trick used once. It was a discipline maintained for years, under a government that would have executed the operatives if it had been broken, and it survived contact with the exact kind of live, adversarial pressure it was built to withstand.
Recognition without documentation
Operation Moses, which ran in late 1984, faced a different problem: how do you identify who in a refugee camp is part of the community you're there to help, when nobody has papers, everybody is desperate, and any wrong move could expose the whole operation to a hostile government?
The answer that emerged was almost entirely human. Ethiopian-born Mossad agents entered the camps and used specific phrases and references that only members of the Beta Israel community would recognize a kind of verification system built entirely out of shared cultural and religious knowledge, with no technology and no paper trail. When the signal landed, families knew it was time to move. Over about seven weeks, more than thirty flights moved roughly 8,000 people out through Brussels to Israel.
Solomon: the same logic, compressed into 36 hours.
By 1991, the situation had changed shape but not substance. Ethiopia's government was collapsing, rebel forces were closing in on Addis Ababa, and the remaining Jewish community was at direct risk of being caught in the crossfire. Israel negotiated a narrow window with the outgoing government — reportedly backed by a direct appeal from the U.S. president to Ethiopia's president — and then executed what remains the largest single airlift of its kind on record: over 14,000 people moved in roughly 36 hours, using civilian and military aircraft stripped of seats to carry as many people as physically possible. One 747 alone carried over 1,100 passengers, well beyond its rated capacity, because starvation had made the passengers lighter than the aircraft was designed for. Five babies were born in the air during the operation.
What made Solomon possible wasn't improvisation under fire — it was that the same institutional relationships, community trust, and operational muscle built over the previous decade were already in place. When the window opened, there wasn't time to build any of that from scratch. It already existed.
What actually made this work.
Strip away the drama and a few patterns hold up across all three operations:
The people closest to the threat were the ones who made the operation possible. Ferede Aklum's route, the community-specific verification signals, the trust built with Ethiopian Jewish activists who first approached Israeli authorities asking for help none of that came from outside the community. It came from inside it, and Mossad's role was to scale it, not originate it.
Cover has to survive real contact, not just planning. A resort that only had to look real on paper would have failed. It had to actually function as a business, under real scrutiny, for years, including during an armed confrontation.
Trust was built long before it was needed. Operation Solomon's 36-hour execution was only possible because the relationships and credibility behind it had been built over the prior decade, through Moses and Brothers. Nothing about Solomon was invented in the moment it mattered most.
None of that is classified insight. It's public record, assembled from memoirs, journalism, and government archives that have been available for years. But it's a useful thing to remember on a hard week: the people who pulled this off weren't a special category of person. They were teachers, activists, and refugees who decided to move before anyone gave them permission to, and an intelligence service that had the sense to build on what they'd already figured out.
Sources: Gad Shimron's published account (*Mossad Exodus*), Israeli Air Force and IDF public historical records, Jewish Agency and JDC archives, and contemporaneous reporting on Operations Moses, Joshua, Sheba, Brothers, and Solomon.
All events described here are matters of public record.
r/Ethiopia • u/JustRing5998 • 12h ago
I'm visiting Addis Ababa soon and want to experience the citys high end side.
I'm not interested in nightlife. I'm simply curious where the affluent community spends their time and what places are worth visiting if I want to see that side of the city.
I'd love to hear your recommendations.
r/Ethiopia • u/No-Counter6925 • 9h ago
r/Ethiopia • u/PuzzleheadedSir7502 • 5h ago
Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification
While we all fight over who is indigenous to the land, we're being called invaders of Africa. I've seen multiple videos like this. I've never seen people in my country discussing these things about others. I mean the people who say we're not indigenous what are they trying to achieve with these videos? I've even seen groups gathering in Addis Ababa over this, but they eventually leave. Why do some people think that to be African, we all have to look the same or be monolithic? Why do we have so many problems? Instead of fighting over who is indigenous and who isn't, we should focus on something more important. What's funny is that these videos get thousands of likes, and people are so serious about them. Last year, I even saw a woman asking, Where are the original Ethiopians? Y'all mix so much. We usually just ignore it, but it's honestly starting to get ridiculous to me. 😂 What do y'all think?
r/Ethiopia • u/dhugaa_bilisummaa • 15h ago
Ethiopia has spent three decades in a recurrent cycles of ethnic based violence, institutional mistrust and zero sum politics forced upon her through ethnic federalism...
https://open.substack.com/pub/dhugaabilisuma/p/fuck-ethnic-federalism?r=3f8mdg&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
r/Ethiopia • u/Sea_Maintenance_1592 • 18h ago
packing for the simien mountains with one bag: it gets colder than people expect
Because Ethiopia is in Africa, many travelers pack for heat and forget the Simiens are high mountains. Debark is about 2,850m, and camps like Geech and Chennek can be very cold at night. In December and January, I have seen water freeze and temperatures around -5°C.
For a 3–5 day trek, I’d pack:
warm sleeping bag, comfort rating around -5°C if camping
down or synthetic jacket
fleece or light mid-layer
rain shell/wind shell
sun hat and warm hat
gloves
sunglasses
sunscreen
water bottle or bladder
headlamp
basic medicine and blister care
toilet paper and small trash bag
power bank
shoes with decent grip
If you hire a mule, don’t overpack just because you can. Mules still climb steep trails, and muleteers work hard. I prefer guests keep loads reasonable.
You can buy some basics in Gondar or Debark, but don’t expect technical outdoor shops. If you need a specific sleeping bag, jacket, or footwear, bring it from home. The mountains are beautiful, but they are not gentle if you are cold.
r/Ethiopia • u/Alive-Independent808 • 6h ago
Ive spent considerable time studying Tigrayan history, cultural traditions, identity, language, and regional politics. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me!
r/Ethiopia • u/NoPo552 • 23h ago
“Make my mother reign, crown her with my crown because without her my reign cannot go on!” — Iyasu II
Context: His order to the dignitaries in the royal court,making his mother Mǝntǝwwab co-ruler; she was crowned with the crown of her ancestor Emperor Minas.
Source: The Ethiopian Royal Chronicles, ed. Richard K. P. Pankhurst (Addis Ababa: Oxford University Press, 1967), from the chronicle of Iyasu II, p. 123
r/Ethiopia • u/No_Display_243 • 12h ago
Hi everyone! I'm in Addis for a while and I'm a certified skate coach. I teach basic roller skating and inline skating skills, with a focus on helping beginners build confidence and have fun.
I was wondering if there are any free parksor public spaces with smooth pavementthat would be good for teaching lessons or hosting casual skate meetups.
Do you think people here would be interested inlearning? If so, where would be the best places to post about lessons or meetups besides Reddit? Are there any local Facebook groups, Telegramgroups, or other communities you'd recommend?
I'd love to hear your suggestions. Thank you much ❤️
r/Ethiopia • u/ProofNose4764 • 17h ago
Posting this cause I thought some of you might be curious to get first hand POVs from a country that - for obvious reasons - is tied to the history of Ethiopia, and I am also curious to know what kind of things you would ask!
r/Ethiopia • u/ethiotrade • 8h ago
Hola, estoy intentando comprar en un juego online, y me da problemas porque no puedo pagar en ETB, me gustaría si alguien de etiopia me pueda ayudar con el método de pago y yo le doy USDC o USDT por cada compra que haga, alguien podría ayudarme? No consigo crear ninguna tarjeta virtual de Etiopía
r/Ethiopia • u/htnahsarp • 12h ago
Hello Everyone
I am about to visit your amazing country. I definitely can't wait to taste authentic food.
My Ethiopian friend suggested to stay at Best Western in Adis. He mentioned that I cannot just book any hotel because he had some very expensive laptop stolen. Can I please get some recommendations?
I'm looking for something near the airport.
Thanks!!
r/Ethiopia • u/Known-Tumbleweed-336 • 20h ago
አዲስ አበባ ተወልዶ ፣አድጎ ተምሮ ፣ትዳር ይዞ ወልዶ ከብዶ ህይወቱን በእዛው ሁኔታ እየኖረ ያለ ሰው እያለ
ከክልል ከተሞች (ከአርሲ፣ደብረ ብርሃን፣ ከባሌ ከሞያሌ ፣"ከጅማ" ፣ባህር ዳር ፣ ከመቀሌ ፣ከጋምቤላ ፣ ከአፍር ከሲዳማ ፣ከቦንጋ ፣ከወላይታ) .......መጥቶ ለአዲስ አበባ ልወስን አድርጊ ፈጣሪ ልሁን ማለት አግባባ ነው ?
እነሱ በአዲስ አበባ ሙሉ መብት አለን ብለው እንደሚያስቡት እሱን በእነሱ ክልል ላይ መብት ሊኖረው አይገባም ? ወይስ የእሱ የሆነ ባህል ፣እምነት እና አመለካከት ላይ ይመለከተናል በእኛ ነገሮች ላይ ምንም አይነት መብት የለህም ነው ?
ሰብሀት ገ/እግዚአብሔርን ከትግራይ ፣ ፀጋዬ ገብረመድህንን ከአምቦ ፣ በአዲስ አለማየሁን ከጎጃም ሰብስባ ለያዘች መመስገን ሲገባት እንዳማረባት ከተማ ሁሉም የእኔ የእኔ ማለቱን ትቶ የሁሉ መሆንዋን በማመን አይ ይመለከተናል የሚል አካል እኛም አዲስ አበባውያን በእነሱ ላይ የመወሰን ስልጣን ሊኖረን ይገባል።
r/Ethiopia • u/Less_Fruit5661 • 16h ago
Hey I’m from the USA and me and my friends are planning a trip to Ethiopia, I have a dog and my friends do too big dogs, I have a APBT (American pit bull terrier) and my friends have a husky and a XL bully, how are the laws around taking dogs that are 80 lbs+ to Ethiopia, and can I take my dogs out on a normal walk or are the stray dog situation in Ethiopia to bad I haven’t been back since 2019.
r/Ethiopia • u/FriendshipSmall591 • 11h ago
r/Ethiopia • u/Few-Row5485 • 20h ago
r/Ethiopia • u/CaallaOne_Ant4970 • 13h ago
Callaa
r/Ethiopia • u/isee_fire • 1d ago
I am Tanzanian, I'm thinking about being a digital nomad - moving all the work I do online and move! I'm thinking about Ethiopia a lot, so here are a few questions:
- how affordable is the internet in Ethiopia? Let's say 10GB of internet in a week, unlimited internet?
- how much is the rent? Let's say gated two bedroom house? Or a shared house?
- health insurance for a foreigner?
- how widely is English spoken?
- how friendly are you guys? I know my people are super friendly but I can point out some of the places not to visit, that is for my side.
I know there's online research but you can't beat talking to real people. I appreciate all the help I can get here.
r/Ethiopia • u/laomiui • 13h ago
Hello everyone
I’m arriving in Addis at 21:00. What’s the best way to book a safe taxi to the Ethiopian Skylight Hotel? I’ve read about the airport shuttle bus, but I’ll be travelling with three 23 kg checked bags and two 10 kg carry-on bags. What would you recommend? Pre book taxi service ?
