{"id":276808,"date":"2019-05-22T04:09:21","date_gmt":"2019-05-22T08:09:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.google.com\/articles\/CBMiYWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmJ1c2luZXNzZ2hhbmEuY29tL3NpdGUvbmV3cy9wb2xpdGljcy8xODc4NzUvRnJvbS1zb2xkaWVyLXRvLXBlYW51dC1zZWxsZXItaW4tRXRoaW9waWHSAQA?oc=5"},"modified":"2026-09-21T11:47:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T15:47:11","slug":"a-former-anti-derg-fighter-was-selling-peanuts-in-mekelle-to-survive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/276808","title":{"rendered":"A former anti-Derg fighter was selling peanuts in Mekelle to survive"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>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.<\/p>\n<img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" height=\"780\" width=\"780\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-600493\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/tigray-1280.jpg?fit=780%2C780&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"A former anti-Derg fighter was selling peanuts in Mekelle to survive\" \/>\n<p>The piece showed the gap between wartime honor language and peacetime poverty for older fighters whose networks no longer delivered pensions or jobs.<\/p>\n<p>Stories like this sat beside Tigray\u2019s 2019 land protests and federal\u2013regional tension, and they reminded readers that political victory for one generation does not guarantee livelihood for the next street corner.<\/p>\n<p>Kept as conflict-aftermath and lifestyle archive, the peanut-seller profile dates ordinary economic pain in Mekelle before the later war.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sources:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessghana.com\/site\/news\/politics\/187875\/From-soldier-to-peanut-seller-in-Ethiopia\">BusinessGhana<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From soldier to peanut seller in Ethiopia&nbsp;&nbsp;BusinessGhanaA veteran soldier who fought the one-party Derg regime in Ethiopia now lives in poverty in the northern city of Mekelle. Birha Asebha is forced to sell roasted &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":600493,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-276808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ethiopian-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/tigray-1280.jpg?fit=1280%2C720&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9NivD-1a0E","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276808"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276808\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":754859,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276808\/revisions\/754859"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/600493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}