Albert Viñas has been involved in almost 50 emergency responses with Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors without Borders (MSF) over 20 years. He has just returned from his sixth mission in Ethiopia, where his role was to prepare the way for medical teams to access areas of eastern and central Tigray and assist people affected by the current crisis. Since violence broke out in this northern Ethiopian region in early November, some 60,000 people have taken refuge in Sudan and hundreds of thousands have been displaced within Tigray. He describes what he found
Hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to leave their homes in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia after fighting broke out in early November 2020, according to OCHA.
Hano Yagoub, MSF’s acting emergency coordinator in Gedaref, Sudan, describes the situation in Um Rakuba camp, where 15,000 people are sheltering after fleeing violence in Ethiopia
Psychological support for MSF staff on the border with Tigray, Ethiopia
On November 4, Ethiopia’s prime minister ordered military action against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) in the Tigray region, in northern Ethiopia, following an attack on a military base. The escalating conflict is already affecting hundreds of thousands of people, and it runs the risk of destabilizing other parts of the country and the region, with potentially catastrophic humanitarian consequences.
Across East Africa , MSF teams are working hard to keep providing essential medical services, taking steps to keep patients and staff safe as well as launching new activities to respond directly to the COVID-19 pandemic.
A Somali midwife working to tackle maternal deaths among nomad women
Doolo Zone, Somali Region, Ethiopia
Thousands of people have shuttled backwards and forwards between the Gedeo and Guji areas of southern Ethiopia over the past 15 months, following an outbreak of ethnic violence in April 2018 and repeated efforts by the authorities to relocate them.