In May 2019 BusinessGhana carried a human story from Mekelle about Birha Asebha, a veteran who had fought the Derg one-party regime and later sold roasted peanuts in the northern city because regular work and support had dried up.
The piece showed the gap between wartime honor language and peacetime poverty for older fighters whose networks no longer delivered pensions or jobs.
Stories like this sat beside Tigray’s 2019 land protests and federal–regional tension, and they reminded readers that political victory for one generation does not guarantee livelihood for the next street corner.
Kept as conflict-aftermath and lifestyle archive, the peanut-seller profile dates ordinary economic pain in Mekelle before the later war.
Sources: BusinessGhana