NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) – United Nations fears “mass community transfer” of COVID-19 in Ethiopia’s troubled Tigray region, fueled by displacement and the collapse of health services, as humanitarian workers finally gain access to the region two months after the start of the fighting.
A new UN report based on initial on-site assessments confirms some of the grim concerns surrounding Tigray’s approximately 6 million people since the conflict broke out on November 4 between Ethiopian forces and those of the Tigray region: hospitals have been looted, even destroyed, and some fighting continues further.
The crisis threatened to destabilize one of the most powerful and populous countries in Africa and attract neighbors like Sudan. Tigray’s leaders dominated the Ethiopian government for nearly three decades before Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed rose to power and sidelined them amid sweeping reforms that earned him the Nobel Peace Prize.
Abiy has rejected international “interference” in the conflict, even as the UN and others advocated unimpeded access to Tigray for weeks as food, medicine and other supplies ran out.
Now COVID-19 has emerged as the latest alarm source. “Only five of the 40 hospitals in Tigray are physically accessible,” says the new UN report released Thursday. “Apart from the one in (the capital of Tigray) Mekele, the remaining hospitals are looted and many reportedly destroyed.” It does not say who did the looting.
The surveillance and control activities of COVID-19 were interrupted for more than a month in Tigray, and that, along with the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people, “is feared it has facilitated the mass transmission of the pandemic from the community,” the report said. .
Ethiopia has one of the highest COVID-19 caseloads in the African continent with more than 127,000 confirmed infections. While the number of daily cases has declined in recent weeks, officials have not said whether they have received data from the Tigray region.
“Health facilities outside the major cities are not functional and those in the major cities operate in part with limited to no supply and absence of health workers,” the UN report said.
The report also says the Tigray region remains volatile. “Local fighting and insecurity continues, with fighting in rural areas and on the peripheries of Mekele, Shiraro and Shire, among others, since last week,” he said.
The overall humanitarian situation is “dire,” says the UN, with “very limited” food supplies and widespread looting has been reported. “Only locally produced food is available and at rising prices, making basic goods unaffordable.” Most of the inhabitants of Tigray are subsistence farmers and the conflict disrupted the harvest.
Two main camps hosting tens of thousands of refugees from nearby Eritrea remain inaccessible – another source of alarm is the presence of Eritrean troops has been confirmed in Tigray.
No one knows how many thousands of people died in the conflict. At least five humanitarian workers have been killed.