Conflict and the Breakdown of Health Care in Tigray
· 9:14 · With Maya, Daniel, and Grace
Today we’re looking at how conflict puts health facilities and medical workers at risk in Tigray, in northern Ethiopia—and what that means for people who need care.
Transcript
Vocabulary in this episode
- round table
This is our round table, where we bring different areas of knowledge together to make a complex issue easier to understand.
A discussion where people with different knowledge share their views.
- hostilities
The 2022 peace agreement ended formal hostilities in Tigray, but the new PHR and OJAH brief reports renewed clashes there in November 2026.
Hostilities are acts of fighting between groups or countries.
- renewed clashes
The 2022 peace agreement ended formal hostilities in Tigray, but the new PHR and OJAH brief reports renewed clashes there in November 2026.
Fighting that has started again after stopping for a time.
- interrogation
It says health facilities have been hit by drones, and health workers have faced interrogation and violence.
Interrogation is formal questioning, often by people in authority.
- intimidation
That includes strikes on health centers and targeting, intimidation, and killing of health workers.
Intimidation is frightening someone to control or pressure them.
- looting
In that group, 63.5 percent reported attacks on ambulances, and 61.1 percent reported theft or looting at their facilities.
Taking goods from a place by force, usually during conflict.
- armed takeover
Fifty-seven percent reported an armed takeover of a health facility.
When armed people take control of a place.
- referral system
MSF said the referral system—the way patients are moved from a local clinic to a hospital—was almost nonexistent after ambulances were seized.
The process for moving patients from one health service to another for care.
- fled
MSF reported that some health workers had fled in fear, and that others no longer came to work after months without pay.
They ran away to escape danger.
- functional
Six months into the war, it found that 27.5 percent of hospitals and 17.5 percent of health centers were functional.
Working and able to provide services.
- functional
It reported that 11 percent of ambulances were functional, and none of 712 health posts were.
Working and able to provide services.
- impeded
Human Rights Watch described how insecurity and armed men near or inside health settings impeded survivors’ access to care in Tigray in 2021.
Made it difficult for survivors to get care.
- implicated
The PHR and OJAH brief says major armed parties have been implicated in attacks on health care.
Shown or said to be possibly involved in attacks.
All In Conversation episodes
Sources
- BBC NewsNHS boss received nearly £400,000 'redundancy' pay-off when she retired - BBC News
- The GuardianTodd Russell, Beaconsfield mine collapse survivor, dies aged 54 due to illness | Tasmania | The Guardian
- NPRIn northern Ethiopia, conflict pushes a strained healthcare system to the brink : NPR
- AfricanewsSlave trade: Ghana's president says reparations not limited to cash payments
- CBC NewsNew Delhi wakes to toxic smog as Diwali firecrackers add to seasonal pollution crisis | CBC News
- RechercheIn the same survey, 28% of respondents said they had personally been targeted or experienced violence because of their work, and 45% said colleagues had experienced violence or targeting for their work.
- Q&A: Attacks on Hospitals and Health Workers in Ethiopia - PHR
- RechercheHuman Rights Watch's 2021 report documented barriers to care for survivors of sexual violence, including insecurity, armed presence near or inside health settings, and shortages of functioning facilities, medicines, trained staff, and transport.
- Drone Strikes, Hospital Attacks, and Violence Against Health Care Workers Push Ethiopia's Health System Toward Collapse - PHR
- RechercheMSF said one-fifth of the facilities its teams visited were occupied by soldiers; it also reported that seized ambulances left the region's patient-referral system nearly nonexistent, forcing some patients to travel long distances on foot.
- A recent WHO report reveals that 86% of health facilities and 99% of medical equipment in Tigray have suffered damage – The Tigray Genocide Memorial
- Frontiers | Damage to the public health system caused by war-related looting or vandalism in the Tigray region of Northern Ethiopia
- RechercheThe 2021 BMJ Global Health article says evidence collection was hampered by displacement, lack of access to insecure areas, and the political and humanitarian use of data in conflict; it compiled reports rather than conducting a new facility survey.
- Neglected Harms: Health Workers Organizing for Accountability in Tigray - PMC
- List of hospitals in Ethiopia - Wikipedia
- Ayder Hospital - Wikipedia
- Client Challenge
- In IRC Report, Syrian Medics Describe How Hospitals Targeted