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In mid-November, after the first week of fighting in northern Ethiopia, an ICRC team traveled to North Amhara and West Tigray. In this account, Wilson Mondal, leader of the field team, describes what they saw.
We traveled as a team of six north of Amhara and west of Tigray by car, a journey that takes about three days to complete. The purpose of our mission was threefold: better understand humanitarian needs, meet with authorities, and deliver medicine and supplies to medical care facilities and ambulances, which we had heard were dealing with large numbers of victims of the fighting. The team also visited some people detained in connection with the clashes and provided them with hygiene items.
Displaced people fear for their lives
On the way from North Amhara to West Tigray, we came across a destroyed village. A house was on fire. The area was completely deserted.
In Dansha, in West Tigray, we met with people who were displaced from their homes and lived in a makeshift camp without food, water or medical care. They told us they feared for their lives and wanted safe passage out of the area.
On the Amhara north side of the border in Abderafi, needs were similar among the displaced. The people we met had fled their surrounding farms, leaving their crops and homes behind. Today they lack the basics: food, water, medical care and shelter.
We do not have an accurate picture of the total number of people displaced from their homes by the fighting in northeastern Ethiopia. There are about 2,000 people living in three camps in the areas we visit, but we believe there are many more in areas we have not yet reached.
Ambulances under fire
Three Ethiopia Red Cross ambulances have been attacked since the fighting began. This is a deeply disturbing sign that first responders, and the people who depend on them for care, are not being respected or protected, which can have dire consequences. These ambulances have transferred hundreds of injured in recent weeks to health centers. We provided some first aid kits to the Ethiopian Red Cross (ERCS) branch in the area.
Sanitary facilities in Amhara
We found that health centers in North Amhara were still treating victims, but at a slower rate than in the first week of clashes during which they received 50 to 60 casualties per day. While the number of patients needing emergency care has dropped, most facilities have run out of essential medicines and medical supplies. We provided emergency medical supplies to some critical facilities to help them resupply and continue to care for the injured.
Among them was Gonder Teaching Hospital, the area’s main referral center, which was also treating a handful of COVID-19 patients, a reminder that the pandemic is still with us, despite the fighting and a new humanitarian crisis unfolding in its territory. wake.
Separated from loved ones
In just three weeks, many people have been separated from their families and will need support in their efforts to find them. This is further complicated by the fact that telephone and Internet networks continue to be down in the Tigray region, isolating people from the outside world.
We already have over 1,300 requests from people in Ethiopia and abroad desperately seeking to communicate with their family members. We know this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Some, tragically, are already dead. Recovering bodies will be a great challenge, which can leave families without closing the fate of their loved ones.
Planning our response
Hospitals and primary health care facilities in northern Ethiopia, in and around heavily fighting areas, are in dire need of medical supplies.
We delivered medical supplies to healthcare facilities in North Amhara and first aid supplies to ERCS, but many urgent needs remain.
Displaced families urgently need food, water and shelter. We need to bring emergency items such as blankets, mats and jerry cans for families urgently.
As the fighting moves east, health care facilities in the Tigray region need support to care for the wounded, and other hospitals are running out of medicines and supplies for routine medical problems. Ambulances must continue to do their job to transport the wounded from the front lines and have the first aid supplies to do so.
People need help to reestablish contact with loved ones in the Tigray region, in other parts of Ethiopia, and abroad. The needs of the detainees in connection with the fighting in the Tigray region must not be forgotten, including their right to contact and receive news from their families.
However, much is still unknown about the level of violence and subsequent suffering that the people of the Tigray region have suffered in just three weeks. The phone and Internet are idle, making it difficult for us to independently verify reports.
Now all eyes are on Mekelle, the capital of Tigray. The city is home to more than 500,000 people, and we know that some hospitals there are already running dangerously low on supplies.
