Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), the global agency that provides medical assistance to people affected by conflict, epidemics, disasters, or exclusion from healthcare, hands over activities as Abiy Adi Hospital in Tigray Region of Ethiopia slowly recovers from impacts of war. “We started by supporting the emergency department, then paediatrics, then neonatal intensive care and maternity. This was at a time when the hospital didn’t even have gloves, and many people were dying due to lack of medical equipment,” said Mulugeta Abreha, nursing team supervisor at Doctors Without Borders in Abiy Adi, Tigray region of Ethiopia.
Doctors Without Borders / Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)’s first presence in Abiy Adi started with the beginning of the war in northern Ethiopia, until the tragic incident of 24 June 2021, in which our colleagues Tedros Gebremariam Gebremichael, María Hernández Matas and Yohannes Halefom Reda were brutally murdered. It wasn’t until March 2023, that MSF returned to Abiy Adi to support the rehabilitation of Tigray’s healthcare system which was deeply disrupted by the conflict. After more than a year, MSF will end its activities on 15 August 2024 as the hospital’s capacity has increased and the healthcare provided has reached appropriate standards.
MSF will focus on assessing and supporting health facilities in other areas where needs may be greater. Impact of the war on healthcare access The town of Abyi Adi is a large population centre .