Vulnerable people groups
Ethiopia's returning refugee population is at greater risk of contracting and spreading COVID-19. South Sudanese refugees in Kule and Tierkidi are struggling to access quality healthcare. Many of these refugees are experiencing psychological trauma as a result of their experiences.
Supporting health authorities
Our teams support the regional health authorities in our different project locations in Amhara and Somali Region in their isolation and treatment centres and with health education. We have also been working on preparedness in all our projects, putting in place preventative and hygiene measures.
MSF-run health facilities
In two camps for South Sudanese refugees in Gambella region, MSF has set up a twenty-bed COVID-19 isolation centre and another one with a capacity for 10 beds. In Gambella town, a team is supporting COVID-19 triage and temporary isolation centre in Gambella Hospital.
Mental health support
Since May, a team in Addis Ababa has been providing mental health support to more than 5,000 refugees who have returned mainly from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Lebanon and are placed in three COVID-19 quarantine centres in the capital. MSF is supporting both medical and non-medical staff who work in the quarantine centres by training them on mental health needs for refugees.
Ethiopia suffered a series of famines in the 1980s, but has since begun to recover. It is now the largest economy in East and Central Africa. Médecins Sans Frontières has worked in the country since 1984.
MSF teams fill healthcare gaps, respond to conflict and disease emergencies, and assist with the needs of a growing refugee population.
Our staff operate and support several health facilities in regional hospitals as well as at refugee entry points and in camps for internally displaced peoples (IDPs). Teams work in 10 outreach clinics in remote locations, organising vaccination campaigns, offering support rations for hunger-affected families, and setting up project sites providing medical care and water supplies.
Our teams manage health posts in Buramino and Hiloweyn camps, and another team works in the health centre in Dolo Ado town, which is a referral point for refugees as well as local people. The health centre has an emergency room, maternity and paediatric units, an operating theatre and X-ray facilities, and runs nutrition and tuberculosis (TB) programs.
Teams based at the local district hospital of Fik, in central Somali Region, have been involved in strengthening the provision of secondary healthcare and nutrition activities at the hospital. Staff work in the emergency room, operating theatre, maternity ward and stabilisation centre for severely malnourished children. We also donate drugs and basic medical instruments to the hospital, and support the provision of services in reproductive healthcare.
Malnutrition is a common problem among the Somali pastoralists. However, local beliefs regarding the causes of the problem pose serious challenges to health organisations like MSF attempting to address the disease from a medical perspective.
MSF provides health education to strengthen social mobilisation within regional communities through outreach programs. Commonly, there is a reliance on traditional healers for assistance, as diseases and medical complications are believed to be caused by demons or offended gods. The programs aim to encourage locals to seek professional medical care.
MSF provides medical care free of charge to both refugees and local communities. The available services include basic healthcare, mental health consultations, nutritional support, routine immunisation, as well as reproductive healthcare, maternal health services and treatment for sexual and gender-based violence.
MSF provides screening and treatment for kala azar (visceral leishmaniasis) patients co-infected with HIV/AIDS and/or TB, and efforts so far have resulted in a significant decrease in transmission and infection rates. In collaboration with the government and UNHCR, we provide basic and secondary health services in the health centres in Kule and Pugnido camps and Pugnido town, and health posts in Kule and Tierkidi
Malaria is endemic in several areas of Ethiopia but the Gambella region - on the border with South Sudan – has particularly high rates of the disease. In 2017 alone, nearly 90% of patients treated for the disease in Ethiopia were from Gambella. Here, MSF provides medical services to about 800,000 people, half of whom are South Sudanese refugees living in various camps across the region.
Famine and Forced Relocations in Ethiopia 1984-1986
The Ethiopian government expelled MSF France from the country in 1985 following public denouncement of the government’s refusal to open a therapeutic feeding centre, as well as its misuse of international aid for forced population transfers.
MSF’s decision to publicly speak out against forced resettlements was criticised by other aid actors. Since then, MSF has released a detailed case study acknowledging the complexity of the situation faced by MSF teams, and justifying the decision to speak out. The report seeks to help future humanitarians address similar dilemmas.
