Ethiopia, with its unique historical and cultural heritage, adopted Christianity as its state religion in 330, making it the second country in the world to elevate Christianity to official status, after Armenia in 301. Ethiopia now is home to 77.5 million Christians, about 67 per cent of its total population. 

It’s also the scene of multiple, rapidly escalating crises experts have identified as some of the most underreported in the world. 

“Economic shockwaves from the disruption in the Strait of Hormuz — due to the ongoing Iran war — is pushing families to the brink of extreme hunger,” reports the UN World Food Program.

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And the UN Human Rights Watch World Report reports over 4.5 million people have been displaced because of ethnic and regional tensions, droughts and floods.   

Families living in makeshift camps for internally displaced people wake up each morning without their breakfast staples — teff, the grain grown in Ethiopia’s highlands, and used to make Ethiopian bread — and coffee, which is also cultivated in Ethiopia and exported around the world. Often days go by without any food or adequate supplies of clean water for cooking and washing in the homes of displaced people.

Argaw Fantu, regional director for Ethiopia of the pontifical charity Catholic Near East Welfare Association (CNEWA), does not depend on media headlines or reports from international policy analysts for information. At his office in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital, he is besieged with urgent appeals for help, with accompanying stories of families displaced, children orphaned and communities devastated by disease and starvation.

“Ethiopia is currently navigating overlapping crises: escalating armed conflicts in the Amhara and Oromia regions, high inflation and fuel shortages, the threat of renewed civil war in Tigray and a humanitarian crisis driven by deep cuts in foreign aid and climate shocks,” he told The Catholic Register in an e-mail exchange.

The country’s celebrated progress in development and poverty reduction in the early 2000s faced a severe setback due to the devastating 2020-2022 civil war between the federal government’s military and armed forces operating out of the northern Tigray region.

“Once seen as a symbol of promising growth in Africa, Ethiopia has endured years of conflict, displacement, drought and climate-related challenges,” said Adriana Bara, CNEWA’s Canadian director. “Today, millions of people endure hunger and uncertainty. More than 10 million people are facing serious food insecurity while communities are still struggling to recover from the devastating drought that affected agricultural production between 2020 and 2023.”

“Rising food and fuel costs in Ethiopia have triggered double-digit inflation, severely eroding purchasing power and forcing vulnerable households to reduce meal frequency and deplete savings,” said Fantu, with cuts in foreign aid exacerbating Ethiopians’ suffering.

Several donor nations, including Canada, have scaled back their global foreign aid budgets, and Ethiopia is projected to the among the hardest hit by these reductions.

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But addressing the humanitarian crisis in Ethiopia is vital for both humanitarian and geopolitical reasons.

“Helping Ethiopia is important to prevent widespread famine and protect vulnerable children from engaging in developmental harm, and also to foster long-term regional stability,” Fantu said.

The implications for regional stability are significant. Ethiopia is the geopolitical hub of the Horn of Africa. Internal volatility due to ethnic tensions could erupt into armed conflict, unchecked displacement and severe food insecurity, and would inevitably spill across borders, adding to instability in neighbouring states like Sudan, South Sudan and Somalia.

“Emergency food assistance for those affected by internal displacement and climate impact are the most urgent needs that CNEWA has identified at the moment,” Fantu said.  

Despite the challenges of helping such a large population, and the enormity of the needs, CNEWA is conducting both short-term and long-term programs: emergency food distribution, sanitation services and clean water, supplementary feeding programs for nursing mothers and children, pastoral care and long-term food assistance for displaced families.

Bara is impressed by the faith, optimism and courage with which Ethiopians, including children, face their staggering challenges.

“During my solidarity visit to Ethiopia in October 2025, we met children at the Shashemene School for the Blind, an institution CNEWA Canada has supported for many years,” she said. “Despite the hardships surrounding them, the students greeted us with joy, determination and hope. In a country where specialized care and education for blind children are rare, the school offers not only Braille and life-skills training, but also dignity, encouragement and a sense of belonging.”

Ethiopia’s churches are often the only lifeline for vulnerable families suffering from poverty, malnutrition and other impacts of displacement. The withdrawal of millions of dollars in foreign food assistance — including the elimination of both European and USAID-funded programs — has created additional challenges for all non-governmental humanitarian organizations.

But CNEWA remains there, working in close partnership with churches and religious congregations, bringing relief and hope to suffering people, something it has done for 100 years in several of the world’s most troubled regions.

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Bara had a special word of gratitude for Canadian supporters that make this work possible.

“Canadian kindness and generosity help sustain programs serving some of Ethiopia’s most vulnerable people, especially children and the sick,” she said.