Tag: Tigray Ethiopian conflict

Medical blockade prevents life saving c-sections for Tigray mothers and infants

A nurse midwife at Mekelle University Ayder Hospital tends to mother and a newborn prior to the invasion of Tigray in November 2020 and subsequent medical blockade. Source WHO

Destruction of health care facilities and blockade of medical supplies to Tigray by Ethiopian government cost the lives of Tigrayan mothers and newborns who need caesarian section.

International guidelines indicate at least 5% of births should be done via caesarian section (c-section) to preserve the life of the mother and/or infant. This is actually the most common operation done globally. Over the past two decades the availability of this life saving care in Africa including Tigray had dramatically reduced maternal and infant mortality. Still in Ethiopia as a whole the rates were in many regions less than 1% although Tigray was a little better at 2%. This indicated that this important service was insufficient to meet the needs.

Prior to November 2020 hundreds of c-sections were performed at Ayder Hospital yearly, the main tertiary teaching hospital in Tigray. This institution was also in the vanguard performing research and training nurses, midwives, physicians, and obstetrician gynecologists with an experienced faculty.

Following the invasion of Tigray by Ethiopian and Eritrean forces in November 2020 a progressive restriction of pre-natal,  birth, and post-natal care was placed upon Tigray by the Ethiopian government. For a year prior to the conflict budgets for health care coming from the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Women and Children, and the Ministry of Education (the tertiary hospital, Ayder in Mekelle, was a federal facility under MOE) began to be cut instead of receiving the usual 13% increase.

Dr Kahsay Gebremedhin at Ayder Hospital in Mekelle reported in June 2021 that although normally the hospital was performing about 500 deliveries for month it had increased to 700. Even with transportation problems patients were coming to Ayder because out of the 8 major hospitals in Tigray only Ayder was not totally ransacked and rendered unusable by invading Ethiopian and Eritrean forces. Additionally it was the only one with a working generator. Fuel embargoes have severely limited surgical services because the power blockade means generators are the only way to get power for surgical equipment like anesthesia machines, lights, and cautery units.

The exact number of births in Tigray now is unknown however it is estimated that about 30 births per 1000 population occur per year. This means that somewhere near 150,000 occur annually in Tigray. Using the 5% standard one could reasonable estimate that upwards of 7,500 c-sections would need to be done to fully protect maternal and newborn lives. This implies that thousands of mother’s and children’s lives will be lost.

 

Medical Director gives witness of Mekelle bombing and severe shortages in Tigray

Medical Director of Ayder Hospital in Mekelle , Dr. Kibrom Gebreselassie Desta Source: Facebook

The following is a copy of the account given by Dr. Kibrom Gebreselassie Desta, Medical Director of Mekelle University Ayder Hospital of the bombing of the kindergarten in downtown Mekelle as documented on his Facebook.  The horror of injuries and death was magnified further by the Ethiopian government’s siege of medical supplies which rendered severely limited what medical care could be given to survivors.

 

It was noon.

Staff were leaving the hospital for the midday break.
 
I locked my door and sat in the couch. I didn’t want to go home for lunch. I know I have no prepared lunch at home. It has been more than a year since I got my salary, like any Tigrea government employee. Every commodity that you can get in the market is at least 10 times more expensive than its pre war value. But this too is if that commodity is available. Eating once a day is a routine thing for someone who can afford it. For someone who is the director of the biggest referral hospital in the entire region. For someone who had spent two decades in medical school, a subspecialist in Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery like myself. For the common people imagine how hard life is.
 
Our friends and family members who live abroad send us money sometime when the have means to do it. Dealers will cut a minimum of 35% of the cash and they give you at an exchange rate which is too low than the bank rate. You should be grateful as this is your only hope to see the sun rising the next day.
 
Photograph of the kindergarten bombed in Mekelle on August 26, 2022  Source: DW
 
While dozing in silence I was started by the sharp noise of an Ethiopian military jet. It was followed by a deafening explosion. I thought my hospital was the target. I run to the emergency room. Everyone was alert and ready to receive the victims. The head nurse told me he saw smoke in the neighbourhood which was at least one kilometre away from our hospital.
We heard the siren of an approaching Red Cross ambulance. It brought an injured elderly woman and a dead boy, at least 17 years old. He had a big hole in his chest. His heart was blown out. An instant death for the kid, but a lifetime horror for the woman who had to endure the scene in the entire trip. Soon more ambulances brought dead and injured children of the air strike. The target this time was a kindergarten. The children’s Amusement Park was completely destroyed. The area is a quite neighbourhood with no military installation or camp. Ethiopians, like their Eritrean allies are known to target market places and schools. They did hit their target once again. We in the receiving end of their two year long atrocities, it is another day of sorrow and bitter sadness.
 
In a hospital which has no budget in a year, with a staff who haven’t received their salary in 16 months, with no electricity (our sterilisation department, the operation theater, imaging department are not functioning because there is no fuel for generators. NGOs like WFP, USAID, UNICEF, WHO and OCHA were asked for help, none of them could help us. The treatment we got from UNICEF was the most painful. The guy there laughed at us when he heard neonates are dying of hypothermia. USAID and WFP opted not to respond to our quest. The others at least shared our pain.) or telecommunications services, here we are to treat our wounded. The emergency physician approached me and asked for more intravenous fluids. Her tears were visible. She knew the hospital has no fluids nor antibiotics. All I can do is shed my tears with her.
Such is our life in Mekelle, Tigray.
This too shall pass!

ENDF sent Somali and Eritrean wounded fighters to unknown fate

What happened to the wounded Eritrean and Somali mercenary soldiers sent to Mekelle Stadium by the ENDF? No one was found there when the ENDF retreated.

We witnessed Somali and Eritrean mercenaries as casualties in Mekelle during the Ethiopian Tigray conflict.  We know that instead of being allowed to stay in Ayder Hospital, transferred to the local military hospital, or to Amhara instead they ultimately disappeared after a transfer to a stadium.  Many Somali mothers whose young men where taken by the former Somali government to Eritrea to join forces invading Tigray in November 20202 are asking what happened to their sons?  Similar questions are being asked of the Eritrean government by Eritrean mothers. 

I was present at Mekelle University Ayder Hospital as a faculty member during the early Mekelle occupation by invading forces. We cared for many casualties of war including civilians and combatants from Tigray and the invading forces. We identified both Eritreans and Somalis in Ethiopian uniform. The locals easily recognized the accent and mannerisms of Shabia which is the term they use for Eritreans. Similarly we had many doctors in training from Somalia and Somaliland who were able to communicate with the Somali mercenaries.

However, the supervising Ethiopian Defense Force quickly moved these foreign mercenaries from Ayder to a makeshift hospital with high security set up at the Mekelle soccer stadium. Apparently there were no doctors there or any type of medical equipment. One wonders what was the fate of these mercenary forces who were injured and required medical treatment? No patient was found there when the ENDF retreated. Apparently families in Eritrea and Somali have been told nothing.

Use of HIV infected soldiers to rape Tigrayan women qualifies as biological warfare

The mass rape of Tigrayan women by HIV infected ENDF and Eritrean soldiers qualifies as a biological warfare under the UN resolutions against use of biological agents Photo source UK Telegraph

Many recorded reports by health care facilities in Tigray of Tigrayan women who were raped by admittedly HIV positive Ethiopian and Eritrean soldiers who boasted their intent to subsequently transmit it to the victim. Under the most common internationally recognized definitions of biological warfare these actions against civilians would qualify as biological warfare. To qualify an act of biological warfare requires that an agent be introduced in a forceful way intended to harm via a mechanism.  An infectious agent was used, HIV, which would not normally have entered the victim except for the violation organized by the invading forces using a stockpile of means to introduce the weapon, the recruited HIV positive soldiers who were ordered to rape civilian women. 

There have been some publications about the incidence of HIV in the Ethiopian Army. These indicate that regular testing and counseling is done about the risk of acquiring and transmitting HIV.  There was higher incidence of HIV in the soldiers compared with the civilian population. Discussions were held on numerous occasions between medical researchers and Ethiopian Army leadership about the potential for spread of HIV by sexual violence in war. Unfortunately rather than act in preventative manner it appears the Ethiopian leadership choose to weaponize those infected with HIV.

Under United Nations Security Council Resolution (1540) passed in 2004 it recognizes that biological warfare can  cause “in addition to the tragic loss of lives, such events could cause food shortages, environmental catastrophes, devastating economic loss, and widespread illness, fear and mistrust among the public”. 

The refusal of Ethiopia to supply humanitarian aid including medications to treat HIV infected persons including those occurring after rape is a continuation of the impact of the use of a biological weapon making it an even greater war crime and crime against humanity.  The United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has documented the strict searching and supervision of the Ethiopian government over any and all medical supplies going to Tigray. Since the first supplies were sent in July 2021 many times key drugs for treatment of HIV and other conditions were removed by security forces before the shipment was allowed to be delivered to Tigray.

Such acts violate the UN Charter. The Secretary General should “”carry out prompt investigations in response to allegations of the possible use of chemical and bacteriological (biological) and toxin weapons that may constitute a violation of the 1925 Geneva Protocol or other relevant rules of customary international law. If any Member State provides the Secretary-General with a report of such allegations, the Secretary-General is authorized to launch an investigation to ascertain in an objective and scientific manner the facts of the matter, including dispatching a fact-finding team to the site(s) of the alleged incident(s), and to report the results of the investigation to all Member States”. 

Addis Ababa narcissism is costing more suffering and loss of life

The narcissist state of denial of Addis Ababa’s leaders and prosperous citizens to recognize the reality of the Ethiopia Tigray conflict is ignorant of history and is only causing more needless suffering. Destiny is bringing change.

Initially outnumbered and outgunned the tiny region of Tigray (Tigray Peoples Liberation Front) captures Addis Ababa in 1991 from the Derg Regime which surprised the world

This week it has been widely reported that Tigray Defense Army has continued to move toward Bahir Dar, Gondar, and most importantly Addis Ababa. Over 50,000 fighters in Afar Militias and Ethiopian National Defense Forces have been killed trying to stop the TDA advance in the past few days.

A graphic from The Subsahara Post dated August 28, 2021 on status of the Tigray forces in Amhara

In discussions with some folks in Addis that are not Tegaru or Oromia they tell me that there exists a prevailing attitude that Addis Ababa is an impenetrable fortress protected by a divinely protected Abiy Ahmed. While there are now millions of displaced persons throughout Ethiopia, millions in a famine state, and war in almost every regional state life in Addis seems little affected they say.  Of course food, fuel, rent, and the price of just about everything else is going through the roof. Oromia and Tigray ethnic groups are often arrested and sent to hidden detention camps.

However, the followers of Abiy Ahmed believe that they cannot be touched. When I asked some of them what they know about the war a frequent answer was they were confident Abiy Ahmed’s army was ready to take back Mekelle any day now. That reports of the the entrance of Tigray deeply into the Amhara region were just propaganda.

Ministry of Health hold Food planning seminar this week focusing on choosing right food groups. No discussion or admission of problem in Tigray shown on the their Facebook page

While this week at a Ministry of Health special seminar on Food Groups devoted to encouraging Ethiopians not to get fat. Millions in Tigray are suffering famine with infants dying at Ayder Comprehensive Specialized Hospital everyday. Where is the concern about these “Ethiopians”?

While millions of people are displaced without food, shelter, or security in Tigray, Amhara, Afar, Somali, and the Southern regions. Well to do residents of Addis are happy that new luxurious beds have been imported for sale in Addis Ababa.

A luxury canopy bed being advertised on Facebook for tens of thousands of birr in Addis Ababa

The wealthy and middle class of Amhara who make up a significant part of the population and the lesser working class of Oromia and other regions make up most of the demographics of the city. Although the area was known as Finfinne (natural spring) by the Oromia who lived there it was colonized by the Amharic king, Menelik II, who ushered in many Amhara settlers to colonize the previously Oromia area. The name was changed  to Addis Ababa meaning new flower just before the beginning of the 20th century. Tension has always existed about the proper name of the city and the inequalities of success of the Amhara and the native Oromo.

Amhara settlers moving into area near Mount Entoto in the 1890s

I remember the Ethiopian New Year celebration 2 years ago when I spent it in Addis Ababa. High tension was seen between Oromo and Amhara young men who marched in the streets carrying their respective national flags foretelling that there would be a future confrontation. 

Oromo protests broke out in October 2019 in Addis Ababa as reported in the Addis Standard

The newly found success of the Oromo Liberation Army now operating within a short distance of Addis Ababa in addition to the Tigray Army march may bring significant change to FinFinne. 

UN protects sovereignty of a tyrant, Abiy Ahmed, it once lauded as reformer

Some world leaders still cling to the deception of Abiy Ahmed as a democratic reformer

Prejudice to preserve sovereignty of tyrants like Abiy Ahmed even in the face of severe violation of human rights especially for those whom the international community previous lauded is a UN fatal flaw. The case of Abiy Ahmed shows the damage such long standing practices can do to add to death and destruction arising from his unchecked leadership.

First reported by the Ethiopian Tigrayan  website OmnaTigray in March 2021 United Nations officials in Ethiopia were doubting and trying to cover up the high incidence of sexual atrocities committed by the Abiy Ahmed order of invasion of Tigray starting in November 2020. Since that report there has been a lot of excuses given by the United Nations that fail to pass the test of honesty and transparency notes a recent review of the situation in Foreign Policy magazine.

Just this week many were baffled when during open discussion of the Tigray Ethiopia conflict at the United Nations where very little mention was made about human rights violations and atrocities or the role of Eritrea. Some representatives were seeming to suggest that the Tigray forces fighting for their peoples survival should just withdrawal with no guarantees of any relief except for pleas by the United States, Ireland, and the United Kingdom.

At the World Economic Forum in 2019 Abiy Ahmed was the golden boy of the meeting. Representatives of the prosperous nations swooned over the presence and words of the new Prime Minister of Ethiopia. There he described how the economy, GDP, and foreign investment over the past ten years had improved dramatically by previous Tigray lead government which he later condemned. He presented reforms to benefit all in Ethiopia. He proposed medemer uniting and combining the differing ethnicities of Ethiopia. Three pillars of progressing Ethiopia he  presented were “vibrant democracy, economic vitality, regional integration and openness to the world”. None of which came to pass.

Following this he went on to receive the Nobel Peace Price for ending war with Eritrea. We know now this was about helping Eritrea escape crippling economic sanction in return for which Eritrea would help wipe out the existence of the Tigray in an unholy alliance with one of the worlds worst tyrants, Isaias Afwerki.

Now August 2021 is coming to an end and the world’s perception of Abiy Ahmed has turned 180 degrees. Under his leadership the number of political prisoners has skyrocketed, many of them his former allies who played key roles in his personal rise to power. Ethiopia’s debt is growing in excess of $40 billion with the birr value itself falling faster then ever.. By his command millions have been sexually abused, killed, and displaced. Rebellion against his government not just restricted to Tigray and Oromia but now includes strengthening factions in Beningshagul, Afar, Somali, Sidamo, Gambella, as well the Agew of the Amhara region. Everyday the portion of Ethiopia he controls gets smaller as the forces of rebellion approach the capital city of Addis Ababa.