Ethiopia

Activities  2015 International Activity Report

There were significant improvements in Ethiopia’s main health indicators in 2015, but unstable weather patterns causing drought and floods meant that vulnerable groups struggled to access the services they needed.

MSF and the national authorities have been working together to increase capacity, respond to outbreaks of disease and fill gaps in basic and emergency healthcare for the fast-growing population, which includes a large number of refugees.

Between 2014 and 2015, more than 220,000 South Sudanese refugees, mostly women and children, arrived in Gambella, where infrastructure and services are limited. Until May, MSF managed a clinic providing comprehensive services inside Leitchuor refugee camp and ran mobile clinics to the Burbiey and Matar transit sites. Leitchuor and Nip-Nip camps had been set up in an area prone to flooding and consequently were completely inundated during the rainy season, forcing the relocation of more than 40,000 refugees to Jewi, a newly established camp 18 kilometres from Gambella town. MSF reduced activities in Leitchuor and now runs the main health centre in Jewi, providing medical consultations, emergency and maternity services, and outreach activities. Teams conducted over 19,600 outpatient consultations over the course of the year.

MSF’s Itang health centre, near Kule and Tierkidi camps, was damaged in the 2014 floods and was therefore temporarily relocated. It returned to its original site in February, with a 55-bed capacity and provided outpatient and 24-hour inpatient services. Over 200,000 outpatient consultations were carried out, 70,000 patients were treated for malaria, and mobile clinics travelled to the Pagak and Pamdong refugee sites. As hospital capacity increased in the camps, the project was closed in July. From December 2015 to January 2016, however, MSF conducted a meningitis vaccination campaign that reached 29,196 people in Kule and 29,317 people in Tierkidi.

In November, MSF teams started providing basic and specialist healthcare, including treatment for malnutrition, tuberculosis (TB) and HIV, at the Pugnido camps near Gambella. A network of community health workers was established to help monitor disease outbreaks and to refer people for medical care. There had been more than 9,700 outpatient consultations by December.

The third round of a vaccination campaign in Gambella targeting refugee children aged between six and 59 months was completed in February with 13,862 children vaccinated against pneumococcal disease and 3,376 vaccinated against diphtheria, whopping cough, tetanus and hepatitis B.

Read more about MSF's activities in Ethiopia in 2015.

Year MSF first worked in the country: 1984.