Main hospital in Ethiopia's Tigray region runs out of food

Empty hospital beds are seen in the Ayder referral Hospital, as patients were sent home after food supplies ran out, in the city of Mekelle, Tigray region, Ethiopia, April 21, 2022. REUTERS/Stringer

The main hospital in Ethiopia’s war-ravaged Tigray region sent home over 200 patients after food supplies ran out last week.

According to officials at the Ayder Referral Hospital in Tigray’s capital Mekelle, the decision to send people home underscores how little food aid is reaching the region.
One official said about 360 patients remained who were able to purchase their own food. New patients without food or money were turned away.

Those who had to leave included babies with meningitis and tuberculosis, and a 14-year-old boy with HIV.

"Nobody cried. We have finished our tears for months now. But every nurse was so sad," pediatrician Tedros Fissehaye told Reuters.

"The families said, ‘pray for us, instead of dying here let’s go home and die there.’”
Another nurse said the hospital also ran out of 90 percent of medication, and that the discharged children would likely die.

Conflict erupted in November 2020 between Ethiopia’s government and Tigray’s rulers. Since the military pulled out of the region in July following months of deadly battles, only a trickle of food aid has entered.

The United Nations said 100 trucks of aid are needed daily, but convoys struggle to pass due to fighting and bureaucratic delays.

More than 90 percent of Tigray’s people need food aid, and staff at Ayder were working for no wages and were also relying on the hospital for food.