Doctors Without Borders suspends majority of activities in Ethiopia

Doctors Without Borders (MSF), an international medical humanitarian organisation, has suspended its activities in parts of Ethiopia following an order by the country's authorities.
In a statement sent to Xinhua news agency on Saturday, the MSF said that it has suspended all activities in the Amhara, Gambella and Somali regions of Ethiopia, as well as in the west and northwest of conflict-hit Tigray region, to comply with a three-month suspension order from the Ethiopian Agency for Civil Society Organizations (ACSO) on July 30.

On receipt of the order, MSF undertook all required action to comply with ACSO's request while their investigation is ongoing, including putting all medical and humanitarian programs into full suspension for a period of three months, the statement added.

"At short-notice, patients have been discharged from MSF clinics, leaving people in these locations with even further limited access to healthcare," the organisation said.

According to the MSF, in the first six months of 2021, its teams provided 212,000 men, women and children with outpatient consultations, admitted 3,900 individuals for specialised care, provided 3,300 people with mental health consultations and assisted 1,500 women in the delivery of their babies across the four regions where MSF has now suspended its activities.

"The order to suspend our medical and humanitarian assistance comes at a time when the humanitarian needs in Ethiopia are enormous, with millions of people in need of food, water, shelter and access to healthcare across the country," the statement read.

While MSF was asked to suspend its activities in specific locations, it continues to run medical and humanitarian services in the capital of Addis Ababa, Guji area in the Oromia region, Southern Nations, Nationalities and People's Region (SNNPR), and southeast Tigray - IANS