The World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday warned that hospitals in Ethiopia’s war-embattled Tigray region are running dangerously low on medical supplies such as vaccines, antibiotics and insulin, as fighting intensifies between federal and Tigrayan forces, reported The Reuters.
While sddressing reporters in Geneva on Friday, the WHO officials said only about 9% of health facilities in Tigray are fully functional amid access constraints and fuel shortages.
They said those hospital or treatment centres that can still operate are using saline solutions to treat wounds and rags to dress them.
“In these situation of hardship and limited access, often death happens at a community level that goes underreported and unregistered,” said Altaf Musani, WHO Director of Health Emergencies Interventions.
He described Tigray’s situation as “deeply worrying.”
The conflict, which began in November 2020, pitted Ethiopia’s army against the Tigrayan forces resulting in a de facto blockade that has lasted around two years, although some aid supplies reached communities between March and August during a temporary ceasefire which has since been broken. The conflict has killed thousands, displaced millions and pushed thousands of people to the brink of famine.
The WHO warned that many deaths were probably going unrecorded from preventable and treatable diseases.
Meanwhile, peace talks are going on between the Ethiopian and Tigrayan officials in Pretoria, South Africa. The discussions, which began on Tuesday, will run until Sunday, October 30, 2022, as presently scheduled. The peace talks are aimed at finding a peaceful solution to the ongoing conflict. The initial talks were scheduled for October 9, but were postponed due to “logistical problems”.
The African Union, along with the United Nations and the United States, has for months been putting pressure on the Ethiopian federal government to sit down for talks with Tigrayan leaders in a bid to end the bloody war.
