ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, June 9, 2022—Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is witnessing a deadly and escalating nutritional crisis in Ethiopia’s Afar region, requiring a major humanitarian response. Hundreds of thousands of people have fled conflict in Afar and are now facing drought, hunger, and an extreme lack of access to health care, along with the host communities.
“What scares us most at this point is that we are only beginning to see the very tip of the iceberg, and already it is overwhelming,” said Raphael Veicht, MSF emergency coordinator in Addis Ababa. “In Dupti Hospital, which is the only functional referral hospital in all of Afar Region, we are seeing children arrive after incredibly long and difficult journeys, and far too many are dying within 48 hours because they are too sick and too malnourished to have a fighting chance at survival.”