 | This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations .(June 2020) |
Anne McLoughlin | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1960 |
| Nationality | Irish |
Anne McLoughlin, Irish aid worker and hostage, born c. 1960.
| This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations .(June 2020) |
Anne McLoughlin | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1960 |
| Nationality | Irish |
Anne McLoughlin, Irish aid worker and hostage, born c. 1960.
A native of Coolebeg, Cloontuskert, County Galway, McLoughlin was the centre of an international event when she was taken hostage in Ethiopia in 1984. She had been working with Concern (now Concern Worldwide) at Korem since November 1983, as an administrator of aid to Somali refugees of local wars. In a message recorded prior to her kidnapping, she stated that:
"The people are absolutely starving. I find it hard to describe the poverty in Korem and Ethiopia. There are people lying in their own diarrhoea with all sorts of diseases like malaria, dysentery, typhoid, relapsing fever and the babies suffer from hypothermia because of the extreme night and day temperatures. Complete families are suffering from the drought here."
On Wednesday 21 April 1984 the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front attacked Korem. Two of the heavily armed guerrillas seized McLoughlin and the other volunteers. They were forced to walk over the mountains or ride mules till they reached the militant's camp. They were held in captivity in extremely primitive conditions, surviving on very spare meals.
However, the Tigrayan had not intended to harm the volunteers, their purpose been to bring world attention to the famine.[ citation needed ]
On 1 May they began the long journey down from the mountains. They again crossed several rivers and were anxious at the constant fear of being attacked and shot by other militant elements. They arrived in Khartoum where they were greeted by Concern's field director. They had been in captivity for forty-nine days.
McLoughlin later worked as a teacher in Tanzania, where she met James O'Loughlin of Ballinrobe, and later married. She subsequently moved to Ennis, County Clare.
The Tigray People's Liberation Front, also called the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front, is a left-wing ethnic nationalist paramilitary group a banned political party, and the former ruling party of Ethiopia. It is designated as a terrorist organization by the Ethiopian government. It is widely known as Woyane, or Wayane in older texts and Amharic publications.
Tigray Province, also known as Tigre, was a historical province of northern Ethiopia that overlayed the present day Afar and Tigray regions. Akele Guzai borders with the Tigray province It was one It encompassed most of the territories of Tigrinya-speakers in Ethiopia. Tigray was separated from the northern Tigrinya speaking territories by the Mareb River, now serving as the state border to Eritrea, with the Tekezé River separating it from the Amhara dominated south.
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Korem is a town and separate woreda in Tigray, Ethiopia. Located on the eastern edge of the Ethiopian highlands in the Debubawi (Southern) Zone of the Tigray Region, this town has a latitude and longitude of 12°30′N39°31′E with an elevation of 2539 meters above sea level and is located along Ethiopian Highway 2. Korem is located in the endoreic basin of the Afar Triangle. The streams near Korem do not reach the ocean. Lake Ashenge is located six kilometers to the north of Korem. The town of Korem is surrounded by Ofla woreda.
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This Timeline of the Tigray War is part of a chronology of the military engagements of the Tigray War, a civil war that began in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia in early November 2020.
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