WHO warns of lack of health supply in the Tigray region

Oct. 28 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The World Health Organization (WHO) warned this Friday that there is a lack of health supplies in the Tigray region due to the upsurge in 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 do not exist in those facilities. We have had first-hand reports of that information,” explained the director of Emergency Health Interventions, Altaf Musani , from Geneva.

Only 30 percent of health facilities in Tigray are still able to provide weekly situation reports to the 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 data from the World Food Program (WFP), in both Amhara and Afar, 19 and 14 percent, respectively, of children under five, mainly displaced, are food insecure, while in Tigray 89 percent percent of the population suffers from this condition, with almost half being severe cases.

“Nearly one in three children under the age of 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 cut health services.

For his part, the team leader of the incident management system and emergency operations for the WHO in Ethiopia, Ilham Abdelhai Nur, has specified 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 not much, but really a small amount that covers a small part of the needs there,” he explained, adding that although they were able to support the measles campaign in Tigray, it was not so with the supply due to the shortage of money. and fuel.

“We were unable to undertake malaria prevention activities for the same reasons. We were unable to extend the COVID-19 vaccination campaign beyond the capital, Mekelle, so we have a big access problem there,” he concluded.

The conflict in Ethiopia erupted after an attack by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Tigray (TPLF) against the Army’s main base, located in Mekelle, after which the Ethiopian Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, ordered an offensive against the group after months of political and administrative tensions. A “humanitarian truce” is currently in force, although both sides have accused each other of preventing the delivery of aid.