Ethiopia suspends MSF and NRC over ‘dangerous’ accusations

The Ethiopian government has suspended international aid groups Médecins Sans Frontières and the Norwegian Refugee Council from working in the country, amid an escalating humanitarian crisis in the country’s northern regions.

Over 5.2 million people in Tigray, which is more than 90% of the population in the region, are in need of lifesaving aid, which includes almost 400,000 people living in famine-like conditions. The conflict has also recently spilled over into the neighboring regions of Amhara and Afar.

“Blanket accusations [against] humanitarian aid workers need to stop … They need to be backed up by evidence if there is any and, frankly, it's dangerous,” Martin Griffiths, the United Nations’ new humanitarian chief, said on Tuesday while speaking to reporters.

Ethiopia Current Issues Fact Check, a social media account that describes itself as a “government website” and has been cited by the Ethiopian government, tweeted that Ethiopia’s Agency for Civil Society Organizations accused the said organizations of disseminating “misinformation,” employing foreign nationals without appropriate work permits and that MSF “illegally imported” and used satellite radio equipment that wasn’t properly authorized.

The account also said the Al Maktoum Foundation was suspended for its work in the education sector, but it’s unclear whether that work was in Tigray.

In a press statement, NRC said Ethiopian authorities ordered on July 30 that the organization suspend all operations in the country for three months. The government cited concerns about the organization’s public messaging, as well as compliance with rules and regulations. The organization has been working in the country since 2011. Last year, the organization assisted 585,000 people across the country.

Ole Solvang, partnerships and policy director at NRC, wrote that the organization is “in dialogue” with the government to “clarify and follow up on any concrete concerns” so that it can continue its humanitarian work.

“It is our sincere hope that we can resume operations as soon as possible,” Solvang wrote.

NRC has been vocal about the destruction of refugee camps during the conflict as well as advocating for safe access to the region for humanitarian actors. The organization has also warned about the displacement of severely hungry children and pregnant women and the lack of aid reaching populations.

Before the conflict, NRC worked in the Hitsats and Shimelba refugee camps in Tigray that hosted close to 33,000 Eritrean refugees, who were forced to flee the camps at the onset of the conflict.

In a statement emailed to Devex, MSF said the organization also received notice on July 30 that its operations were suspended for three months. It said the organization is in the process of “urgently seeking clarification from the authorities around the reasons and details for this suspension.”

“Access to healthcare in these regions is already limited, and the impact of a further reduction in services because of a forced suspension will have dire consequences for the people we are assisting, including Ethiopian citizens and refugee communities hosted by Ethiopia,” it said.

Tigray’s health systems have been deliberately targeted in the conflict, which included deliberate vandalization of health facilities, rendering them nonfunctional. MSF has been vocal about this destruction. Three of its staff members were killed in June in Tigray, after which the organization said the "levels of violence against civilians and the atrocities committed in Tigray are utterly shocking."

During the ongoing conflict, MSF has worked to support health systems in the area including providing emergency, inpatient, surgical, pediatric, maternity, oxygen, mental health, and nutritional support, as well as water and sanitation assistance. The organization said in Ethiopia it "provided 220,000 outpatient consultations, treated 16,000 people for malaria, admitted 3,300 people to hospital for specialized care, provided 3,800 people with mental health consultations and assisted in the delivery of 2,700 babies" last year.