Urgently Needed Food And Medical Supplies Blocked From Entering Tigray
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(OPINION) The conflict in Ethiopia continues to take new victims. Shortly after it began on Nov. 4, 2020, evidence of mass killings of several hundred people in the western Tigray town of Mai Kadra started to emerge. Subsequent weeks have seen reports of thousands killed — including civilians — thousands fleeing to Sudan, the widespread use of rape and sexual violence and much more. In December 2020, the U.N. alleged that the crimes amount to violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law, including the deliberate targeting of civilians, extrajudicial killings and widespread looting.
In 2021, the situation only deteriorated. At the end of January 2021, U.N. special representative for sexual violence in conflict, Pramila Patten, reported on serious allegations of sexual violence used as a weapon of war in the Tigray region of Ethiopia. The atrocities in the region could be categorized as crimes against humanity. Furthermore, the crime could also meet the legal definition of genocide due to the specific targeting of the ethnic Tigrayans. Indeed, the U.N. special adviser on the prevention of genocide, Alice Wairimu Nderitu, noted this serious risk, pointing to the “calls to arms and hate speech, militarization of society, ethnic profiling, denial of humanitarian access and blockage of food to areas under fighting inhabited by specific ethnic communities.”
In 2021, the U.N. raised its concerns regarding the emerging humanitarian crisis and the risk of famine. In November 2021, U.N. reported that 9.4 million people were “living their worst nightmare” in northern Ethiopia due to ongoing conflict and more than 80% of them, 7.8 million, were “behind battle lines.”
Early January 2022, news started circulating of a Tigray hospital running out of food and medical supplies. As reported by medical professionals who have worked in, visited, and collaborated with Ayder Comprehensive Specialized Hospital, a major teaching institution in Mekelle in Tigray, the hospital is in urgent need of food and medical supplies.
Reportedly, the Ayder hospital has been forced to cancel basic surgeries. The availability of essential medications has “plummeted from almost 80% 1 year ago to less than 20%, and laboratory tests have dropped from 94% to less than 50%.” Patients are said to be dying from lack of a reliable oxygen supply.
Reportedly, “neurosurgeons are operating without the benefit of imaging, depending on clinical skills only — a situation reminiscent of the 19th century.” Medical professionals from the Ayder hospital have been calling for urgent delivery of such medical supplies as insulin. Their stock is to run out within a week, putting many patients at risk to their lives and health. The hospital has run out of IV fluids, chemotherapy and morphine. In addition, hospital staff have not been paid for most of 2021.
According to Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization, WHO had not been permitted to send medical supplies to the region since mid-2021.
Furthermore, since Dec. 14, 2021, no World Food Program aid convoys have been able to reach Mekelle. This includes stocks of nutritionally fortified food to treat malnourished women and children. The remaining stock is extremely low and is to run out shortly.
The blockage of Tigray is said to be to blame for the shortfalls of medical supplies and food. The U.N. blames Abiy Ahmed, the prime minister, for the blockade that ultimately deprives the region of necessities, including food and medical supplies. The Ethiopian government blames the Tigray People’s Liberation Front.
The situation in Tigray requires urgent assistance. The region requires access to food and medical supplies to address the growing needs of the people there and to prevent yet a bigger disaster that is underway.
This piece was republished from Forbes with permission.
Ewelina U. Ochab is a legal researcher, human rights advocate, doctoral candidate and author of the book “Never Again: Legal Responses to a Broken Promise in the Middle East” and more than 30 U.N. reports. She works on the topic of the persecution of minorities around the world.