In June 2021, three Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) staff were brutally murdered in the Tigray region of Ethiopia. Following a New York Times investigation into the killings of our colleagues, MSF is urging the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE) to respond. 

Following is a statement from the president of MSF Spain, Paula Gil. 

María Hernández, Yohannes Halefom and Tedros Gebremariam were killed on 24 June in Tigray, Ethiopia. Their colleagues from Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) remember them.

Following the brutal murder of three staff in the Ethiopian region of Tigray on 24 June, Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is calling for an immediate investigation into the killings and insists that aid workers are allowed to do their jobs in safety.

In response to the killings, we have suspended our activities in Abi Adi, Adigrat and Axum, in central and eastern Tigray. MSF teams in other areas of Tigray will continue cautiously to provide assistance to people in urgent need.  

Today we are in mourning after receiving confirmation of the death of three of our colleagues who we were working in Tigray. Maria Hernandez, our emergency coordinator, Yohannes Halefom Reda, our assistant coordinator and Tedros Gebremariam Gebremichael our driver were travelling yesterday afternoon when we lost contact with them. This morning the vehicle was found empty and a few metres away, their lifeless bodies.

Many of Tigray’s six million people live in mountainous and rural areas where they are all but invisible to the outside world. While teams of aid workers have been deployed to the main cities of this northern Ethiopian region over recent months, aid is failing to reach more remote communities, where the impact of the conflict has often been severe. Many people have been unable to access healthcare and other basic services for the past six months and are still living in fear.

Health facilities across Ethiopia’s Tigray region have been looted, vandalised and destroyed in a deliberate and widespread attack on healthcare, according to Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF). Of 106 health facilities visited by MSF teams between mid-December and early March, nearly 70 per cent had been looted and more than 30 percent had been damaged; just 13 per cent were functioning normally.

Since fighting first erupted in northern Ethiopia in early November, hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced from their homes. Some 50,000 people have crossed the border into Sudan as refugees, leaving border towns struggling to provide adequate food and shelter for those fleeing the violence. 

MSF teams in the region are providing essential medical care and support to refugees as they cross into Sudan. Australian nurse Kiera Sargeant, former MSF medical coordinator in Sudan, discusses the urgent needs and our current responses to the crisis. 

Severe flooding is affecting an estimated 1.3 million people across South Sudan and Ethiopia, inundating homes and leaving many without adequate food, water or shelter. Heavy summer rains have seen many areas flooded since July, with river levels continuing to rise.