The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned on Friday of a lack of health supplies in the Tigray region due to the upsurge of fighting in the area and the worsening of both the health and humanitarian situation.
«We know that there are confirmed reports of shortages (of) intravenous fluids, antibiotics and other treatment drugs that are not available in those facilities. We have had first-hand reports of that information,» Health Emergency Interventions director Altaf Musani explained from Geneva.
Only 30 percent of health facilities in Tigray are still able to provide weekly situation reports to WHO, so this «difficult» situation leaves people without treatment for injuries, food insecurity or malnutrition, sexual or gender-based violence, as well as diseases such as malaria and cholera.
According to World Food Program (WFP) data, in both Amhara and Afar, 19 percent and 14 percent, respectively, of children under five years of age, mainly displaced, are food insecure, while in Tigray 89 percent of the population is food insecure, with almost half being severely food insecure.
«Almost one in three children under five in Tigray is malnourished,» Musani said, adding that «65 percent of children have not received nutritional support for more than a year» due, among many other causes, to the cutback in health services.
For his part, the team leader of the incident management and emergency operations system for WHO in Ethiopia, Ilham Abdelhai Nur, said that access to these services was intermittent between March and August, as well as during the humanitarian truce in Afar, Amhara and Tigray.
«We were able to bring in not much, but really a small amount that covers a small part of the needs there,» he explained, adding that while they were able to support the measles campaign in Tigray, this was not the case with the supply due to shortages of money and fuel.
«We could not undertake malaria prevention activities for the same reasons. We were not able to extend the COVID-19 vaccination campaign beyond the capital, Mekelle, so we have a big access problem there,» he has settled.
The conflict in Ethiopia erupted following an attack by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) on the main army base in Mekelle, after which Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ordered an offensive against the group following months of political and administrative tensions. A «humanitarian truce» is currently in force, although both sides have accused each other of impeding the delivery of aid.
