Thousands of street children in Addis Ababa are being moved to shelters as COVID-19 cases soar in the east African nation
ADDIS ABABA - When Olana Abdulsewud was woken by the police in Addis Ababa early one morning in March, the Ethiopian teenager was relieved.
Begging to survive on the streets had become increasingly tough for Olana, one of an estimated 10,000 homeless children in Ethiopia's capital, since the arrival of the new coronavirus.
Authorities in Addis started rounding up street children in March to prevent them from contracting and spreading the virus - so far more than 4,100 have been placed in shelters - and the drive is being ramped up as coronavirus cases rise nationwide.
Despite rapid growth in the past decade, inequality is stark in Ethiopia where a growing number of children have been driven from their homes - by poverty or neglect - and ended up begging or selling wares to survive life on the streets, charities said.
Tatek Abebe, an academic who has done research into Ethiopia's street children, said factors such as rural poverty and ethnic violence meant most of these children would prefer to remain in Addis rather than move back home to the countryside.
