Solomon was a medical doctor in a town in West Gojjam Zone in Ethiopia’s northwestern
Amhara region when armed conflict broke out in August 2023 between the Ethiopian
federal government and an Amhara militia known as Fano.
Like many other medical professionals working in towns experiencing heavy fighting, he
focused on treating all categories of patients, including those wounded in the fighting and
those with non-trauma needs, despite the hospital’s decreasing resources and the very
real risks health workers faced, including attacks from warring parties.
By early November 2023, the Ethiopian military had taken control of the town. Soldiers
seized the hospital’s ambulance, accusing doctors of using it to provide treatment to Fano
fighters. They also began regularly harassing staff, including Solomon, threatening them
and repeatedly searching the hospital as well as the residences of hospital staff. Despite
this, he and his colleagues continued to treat patients. In December, Solomon began
receiving threatening phone calls from unknown callers whom he believed were
government soldiers, questioning his relationship with Fano. He later found out the
military had placed his name on a list of individuals suspected of giving treatment to Fano
fighters. Fearing for his life, he fled the town, adding to the growing number of healthcare
professionals who have stopped medical practice in the region or relocated beyond the
front lines.
Many doctors, nurses and other health workers in the Amhara region have had similar
experiences. For the past three years, since the start of northern Ethiopia’s armed conflict
in November 2020, both Ethiopian government forces and non-state armed groups have
repeatedly targeted medical professionals, others in the health sector as well as medical
facilities.
ፍትህ ለሁሉም / Justice for All