{"id":13313,"date":"2022-03-16T20:12:17","date_gmt":"2022-03-16T20:12:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/?p=13313"},"modified":"2022-03-16T20:12:21","modified_gmt":"2022-03-16T20:12:21","slug":"tigray-facing-worlds-biggest-health-catastrophe-who-warns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/?p=13313","title":{"rendered":"Tigray facing world\u2019s biggest health \u2018catastrophe\u2019, WHO warns"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

UN also warns that attacks on health workers and facilities are becoming commonplace, with 43 confirmed in Ukraine since Russia invaded<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Source: The Telegraph<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Six million people \u201csealed off from the outside world\u201d for 500 days in Tigray are facing an unparalleled health crisis, the head of the World Health Organisation has warned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a renewed plea for Ethiopian and Eritrean forces to \u201cend the blockade\u201d of the region, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus \u2013 who grew up in Tigray \u2013 warned that the situation there was \u201ccatastrophic\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes, I\u2019m from Tigray and this crisis affects me, my family and my friends very personally,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I, as the director general of WHO, have a duty to protect and promote health wherever it\u2019s under threat. And there is nowhere on earth where the health of millions of people is more under threat than Tigray.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added: \u201cJust as we continue to call on Russia to make peace in Ukraine<\/a>, so we continue to call on Ethiopia and Eritrea to end the blockade, the siege, and allow safe access for humanitarian supplies and workers to save lives.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tigray has been largely cut off from the world for 16 months, after a power struggle between the federal government and the regional government of Tigray, northern Ethiopia, exploded into a civil war based along ethnic lines<\/a> in November 2020. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It has been hard to\u00a0track exactly what is going on<\/a>\u00a0across the region due to communications blackouts, with aid organisations and journalists largely barred from entering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Dr Tedros has been outspoken about the situation, prompting criticism from Ethiopia \u2013 in January, the government sent the WHO a letter accusing the director general of \u201cmisconduct\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But on Wednesday, Dr Tedros called the conflict a \u201cforgotten crisis\u201d and warned the situation in Tigray and the neighbouring regions is deteriorating rapidly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is almost no fuel, no cash and no communications,\u201d he said. \u201cNo food aid has been delivered since the middle of December, [and] 83 per cent of the population is food insecure.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr Tedros added that treatment programmes \u2013 including for 46,000 people with HIV \u2013 have been \u201cabandoned\u201d, while the WHO estimates roughly three-quarters of health facilities have been damaged or destroyed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Attacks on Ukrainian health facilities \u2018destroy hope\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

His comments came as the UN health agency said that health workers and facilities are increasingly coming under targeted attacks<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24<\/a>, the WHO has verified 43 attacks on health facilities \u2013 including the bombing of a maternity hospital in the besieged city Mariupol<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Dr Mike Ryan, head of the WHO\u2019s emergencies programme, said such tactics are increasingly \u201cbecoming part of the strategy and tactics of war, [which] is entirely, entirely unacceptable\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So far this year, the WHO has documented 89 attacks on health care, in countries including Burkina Faso, Syria and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Just last month, eight polio workers were killed in Afghanistan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis really is more important than bricks and mortar \u2013 this isn’t just about the destruction of buildings,\u201d Dr Ryan said. \u201cThis is about the destruction of hope and this is about taking away the very thing that gives people the reason to live and the fact that the families can be taken care of, that they can be cured, if they\u2019re injured.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that such attacks in Ukraine are limiting the agency\u2019s ability to respond and help prop up a healthcare system \u201cteetering on the brink\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow can we put emergency medical teams on the ground if the very facilities that they may want to go on to support are going to be attacked, going to be bombed, going to suffer catastrophic damage?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UN also warns that attacks on health workers and facilities are becoming commonplace, with 43 confirmed in Ukraine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13314,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[32,85],"class_list":["post-13313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-english","tag-the-telegraph"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/1-31.png",1187,741,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/1-31-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/1-31.png",300,187,false],"medium_large":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/1-31.png",640,400,false],"large":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/1-31.png",640,400,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/1-31.png",1187,741,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/1-31.png",1187,741,false],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/1-31.png",825,515,false],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/1-31.png",590,368,false],"woocommerce_thumbnail":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/1-31-300x300.png",300,300,true],"woocommerce_single":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/1-31.png",600,375,false],"woocommerce_gallery_thumbnail":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/1-31-100x100.png",100,100,true]},"author_info":{"info":["Axumawian Media"]},"category_info":"News<\/a>","tag_info":"News","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13313"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13313\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13316,"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13313\/revisions\/13316"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}