Ethiopia – Tigray Region Humanitarian Update Situation Report #22 – November 19, 2021
FAST FACTS
- In Ethiopia, International Medical Corps is operating 21 mobile health and nutrition teams (MHNTs), which have reached 678,130 internally displaced persons (IDPs) settled in more than 32 IDP sites in the Afar,
Amhara and Tigray regions. - International Medical Corps’ MHNTs are providing integrated health, nutrition, gender-based violence (GBV), mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS), and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services.
- Our teams have carried out more than 162,292 consultations and screened more than 105,816 children and pregnant women for acute malnutrition.
Nearly one year into the conflict between the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the security situation in northern Ethiopia continues to deteriorate. Since the withdrawal of the ENDF from Tigray in June 2021, the conflict has expanded to seven zones in the Amhara region (North Gondar, South Gondar, Wag Hemra, North Wollo and South Wollo, North Shewa and Oromia special zone) and two zones in Afar (Zone 1 and Zone 4). This expansion of fighting has created an additional 1.7 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) and rendered 1,436 health facilities nonfunctional in the Amhara and Afar regions, including 271 health centers, 1,143 health posts and 22 hospitals. Out of the affected health facilities, 163 health centers, 642 health posts and 14 hospitals have been destroyed and looted of equipment and supplies. With the recent increase in violence we can expect this number to increase over the coming days.
The emergency response effort in Tigray continues to be hampered by the disruption and suspension of electricity, telephone and internet networks, banking services, fuel shortages and logistical challenges in transporting critical supplies, including essential drugs. As a result, medical supplies are in extremely short supply in Tigray. The shortage of trucks and fuel has created a backlog of more than 2,500 metric tons of aid supplies waiting to be transported. In addition, a recent escalation in the conflict has meant that International Medical Corps has had to constantly move its mobile health and nutirtion teams (MHNTs) to ensure the safety of the teams and the IDPs. Accordingly, our teams in Chifra (in the Afar region) and Dessie (in the Amhara region) have suspended their activities due to the conflict. All other teams remain operational in Amhara and Tigray, and are supporting communities as needed.
Source: International Medical Corps