MSF Press Release: Urgent Appeal to Government of Ethiopia Despite repeated appeals over the past weeks to gain permission to return, the Government

Violence and displacement are threatening the lives of the civilian population in Ethiopia’s conflict-affected Somali region, says the medical humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). Despite urgent humanitarian needs, however, two sections of MSF have been denied access to the region. MSF is calling on the Ethiopian authorities to immediately allow its teams to provide assistance to people in the region who are facing an increasingly desperate situation. MSF has a signed agreement with the Government of Ethiopia to work in the Somali region –often referred to as the "Ogaden region" – and had conducted several assessments of the humanitarian needs in the area when it was forced to evacuate its teams for security reasons in late July. Despite repeated appeals over the past weeks to gain permission to return, the Government of Ethiopia has denied MSF access.

"There is a humanitarian crisis in the Somali-region of Ethiopia," said William Robertson, Head of Mission for the Dutch section of MSF in Ethiopia. “Our teams have treated people who have been forced to flee their homes and are now struggling to survive with little or no assistance. People are living in fear because they find themselves targeted by and caught between armed groups. We are urgently calling for immediate access to the region in order to help civilians in need."

While conducting mobile health clinics and measles vaccination campaigns in the Wardher area of the region until fighting forced the MSF team to leave on July 24, MSF international staff saw emptied and burned villages and assisted numerous people who reported being forcibly displaced from their homes. Despite limited operations, MSF treated several victims of beatings and gunshot wounds, underlining the need for urgent medical care in the area.

In July, MSF also conducted assessments of the humanitarian needs in the region in the areas of Denan, Garbo, Degahmadow, Sagag, and Fiq. During these assessments, the MSF team saw a number of villages wholly or partially abandoned and were told of food shortages by villagers and displaced people.

"Last week, we asked the authorities to grant us access at least for 24 to 48 hours so we could provide medications and material to Fiq health centre. We know that the health centre and the wider district are suffering from a serious shortage of drugs as the last supplies arrived six months ago" , said Loris De Filippi, operational coordinator for MSF Belgium in Ethiopia. "But once again, the authorities refused to let our team move from the capital city Jijiga to Fiq by road or even by plane".

As insecurity has left health structures empty of staff and medicines, there is a risk that the health situation will deteriorate further. In the month since MSF carried out its assessments, no independent humanitarian non-governmental organizations have been able to provide assistance to these areas. The region is known to be extremely precarious and subject to nutritional emergencies and famines causing extremely high mortality, as witnessed by MSF in the years 1992 and 2000. Humanitarian organizations must be allowed immediate access to the region, otherwise the medical and nutritional consequences risk becoming catastrophic.

Eyewitness Report of Ogaden Crisis Villages deserted, burned in Ethiopia's Ogaden - MSF Reuters, Sep 4, 2007

"I saw burned out villages. I remember passing a number of villages that were empty other than the elderly and sick," Eileen Skinnider, assistant coordinator for Ethiopia, told the news conference via an Internet link from Canada. "We didn't pass one commercial vehicle ... I saw women and children chased away (by soldiers) trying to collect water from wells ... I saw small groups of men living in the bush."

Ethiopia 'blocking MSF in Ogaden' In December 1985 Mengistu kicked Medecin Sans Frontiers (MSF) out of Ethiopia because they spoke up against the diversion of aid and the forced resettlement program. MSF continued to work behind rebel lines in Tigray and Eritrea to provide desperately needed medical help. In 1999 MSF was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Note - Somali region is larger than indicated in above map

ICRC deplores expulsion from Somali Regional State International Committee of the Red Cross Press Release, July 26, 2007

ICRC (Geneva) – The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) deplores the decision by the authorities of Ethiopia's Somali Regional State, where it has been present for over 12 years, to give it seven days' notice to leave.

In 1936, the fascist regime of Mussolini refused any cooperation with the Red Cross and bombed Red Cross hospitals and ambulances in Ethiopia. Mengistu also attacked civilians while the Red Cross was distributing relief. According to a Human Rights Watch Report (1990): "Wukro was held by the [Mengistu] government until March 1988, and was a center for relief distributions by the Ethiopian Red Cross. After the TPLF captured the town, the Ethiopian Red Cross distributions continued according to the schedule already agreed with the government. On April 8, the distribution went ahead as planned, but government bombers attacked and killed about 100 civilians who had gathered there.