CAPE TOWN - A lack of fuel is preventing the distribution of critically needed medical supplies in Ethiopia’s conflict-ridden Tigray region, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday.
According to the global health authority, the organisation has been permitted to deliver medical supplies to Tigray for the first time since July 2021, but there is no fuel to distribute them to health centres.
The supplies, which are in storage, include essential medical equipment, personal protective equipment, antibiotics, medicines for malaria and diabetes, including insulin, treatment for severe acute malnutrition and medicines and supplies for reproductive health, said WHO.
“Our partner, the World Food Programme (WFP), began airlifting them to Mekelle, in Tigray, on February 11. More shipments are planned this week.”
Fuel for humanitarian operations has not been allowed into Tigray since August 2021, except for two WFP trucks in November.
WHO says the lack of fuel, cash and supplies has caused humanitarian operations in Tigray to be reduced or suspended altogether, as highlighted in the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs’ (OCHA) humanitarian update for northern Ethiopia last week.
The WHO says shipments, which are part of 33.5 metric tons of planned deliveries, still represent a small portion of what is needed.
Without access to supplies, health workers are trying to continue to provide health services with almost no medicines or functioning equipment.
According to OCHA, health partners estimate the following supplies are required to meet the urgent nutrition and health needs of the people in Tigray: 2 200 metric tons of emergency health kits; 1.5 million doses of cholera vaccine; polio oral vaccination for 888 000 children under 5 years; more than 30 000 metric tons of nutrition supplies for the treatment of severe acute malnutrition in outpatient clinics and 100 metric tons for children hospitalised at stabilisation centres; about 830 metric tons of nutrient supplements to fortify the nutrition of 1.4 million people, mainly women and children; and 15 000 metric tons of vitamin A supplements.
Malnutrition rates among children and pregnant and breast-feeding women in Tigray, as well as in Amhara and Afar, remain alarmingly high.
Nutrition screening campaigns conducted in recent months found that 71% of pregnant and breast-feeding women in Tigray were acutely malnourished. The figure in Afar was 45%, and in Amhara it was 14%.
Access has been relatively easier in the Amhara and Afar regions, with WHO shipping 84 metric tons of supplies in late December 2021.
WHO is planning to ship an additional 15 to 20 metric tons to Afar to meet the health needs of people recently displaced as a result of the ongoing fighting on the Tigray-Afar border.
“We call for fuel to be allowed into Tigray urgently, with the support from national authorities and international partners, so that WHO and partners can meet the humanitarian needs of all Ethiopians,” said WHO.
IOL