Africa-Press Ethio<\/p>\n
The United Nations fears \u201cmassive community transmission\u201d of COVID-19 in Ethiopia\u2019s troubled Tigray region, fueled by displacement and the collapse of health services, as humanitarian workers finally begin to access the region two months after fighting began.
\nA new U.N. report based on the first on-the-ground assessments confirms some of the grim concerns around Tigray\u2019s some 6 million people since the conflict erupted Nov. 4 between Ethiopian forces and those of the Tigray region: Hospitals have been looted, even destroyed, and some fighting continues.<\/p>\n
The crisis has threatened to destabilize one of Africa\u2019s most powerful and populous countries and to pull in neighbors such as Sudan. Tigray leaders dominated Ethiopia\u2019s government for nearly three decades before Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed came to power and sidelined them amid sweeping reforms that won him the Nobel Peace Prize.<\/p>\n
Abiy has rejected international \u201cinterference\u201d in the conflict even as the U.N. and others pleaded for weeks for unhindered access to Tigray as food, medicines and other supplies ran out.<\/p>\n
Now COVID-19 has emerged as the latest source of alarm. \u201cOnly five out of 40 hospitals in Tigray are physically accessible,\u201d the new U.N. report issued Thursday says. \u201cApart from those in [the Tigray capital of] Mekele, the remaining hospitals are looted and many reportedly destroyed.\u201d It does not say who did the looting.<\/p>\n
COVID-19 surveillance and control work was interrupted for more than a month in Tigray, and that, along with the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people, \u201cis feared to have facilitated massive community transmission of the pandemic,\u201d the report says.<\/p>\n
Ethiopia has one of the highest COVID-19 caseloads on the African continent with more than 127,000 confirmed infections. While its rate of daily cases has declined in recent weeks, officials have not said whether they have been receiving any data from the Tigray region.<\/p>\n
\u201cHealth facilities outside of major cities are nonfunctional and those in the major cities are partially working with limited to no stock of supplies and absence of health workers,\u201d the U.N. report says.<\/p>\n
The report also says the Tigray region remains volatile. \u201cLocalized fighting and insecurity continues, with fighting reported in rural areas and in the peripheries of Mekele, Shiraro and Shire among other locations, as of last week,\u201d it says.<\/p>\n
The overall humanitarian situation is \u201cdire,\u201d the U.N. says, with food supplies \u201cvery limited\u201d and widespread looting reported. \u201cOnly locally produced food items are available and at increasing prices, making basic goods unaffordable.\u201d Most Tigray residents are subsistence farmers, and the conflict disrupted the harvest.<\/p>\n
Two important camps hosting tens of thousands of refugees from nearby Eritrea remain unreachable \u2014 another source of alarm as the presence of Eritrean troops has been confirmed in Tigray.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Africa-Press Ethio The United Nations fears \u201cmassive community transmission\u201d of COVID-19 in Ethiopia\u2019s troubled Tigray region, fueled by displacement and the collapse of health services, as humanitarian workers finally begin to access the region two months after fighting began. A new U.N. report based on the first on-the-ground assessments confirms some of the grim concerns […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":608,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[241,273],"class_list":["post-1514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","tag-africa-press-ethiopia","tag-minister-abiy-ahmed"],"yoast_head":"\n