Ban Advocates Blog

Berihu Mesele, based on an interview in Dublin, 20 May 2008

My name is Berihu Mesele and I am from the Northern part of Ethiopia. I live in the town of Mekele. I am married and I have two daughters, who are five and three years old.

I was once a person who could normally walk. Now I am in a wheelchair.

I was a fighter for four years and suffered an accidental bullet wound to the leg in 1991. I was 22 years old then. In 1992, after the end of the struggle, I went back to complete the schooling I had had to leave.

During the border conflict with Eritrea in June 1998, the Ayder School, close to my house in Mekele, was bombed. It was around 3 o’clock in the afternoon. Many people ran to the school to see what had happened to their children. I ran with them. When I arrived there, I saw people lifting children into cars to bring them to the hospital. I saw blood everywhere. At that moment, I did not realise who was injured or dead, or whether my relatives were among them or not.