The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) forces have looted and destroyed more than sixty health facilities in Afar region during their occupation of many towns in the region, according to Yassin Habib, head of the region’s health bureau.

“One hospital and 62 health facilities were deliberately destroyed completely,” the head of the health bureau told BBC Amharic.

According to Yassin, 17 health centers, a hospital and 42 health posts were attacked, their building and medical treatment structures destroyed, their supplies and equipment looted and wrecked.

He added: “This has left the region’s health system on the brink of collapse and millions of people without access to basic healthcare.”

He said that until repairs and reconstruction could begin, the region would try to deploy mobile medical units to reach people who are cut off from access to health services. “We used to have about 20 mobile units and we have now deployed 5 to 10 additional mobile health and nutrition teams. An NGO is working in hard-to-reach areas,” he said. He explained that these groups are providing a range of services, including delivering vaccination and childbirth. He added that they play a key role in referring vulnerable patients to health centers and providing transportation services to the hospital.

However, he pointed out that there is a huge gap in healthcare delivery as this service cannot replace the regular health facility service.

Noting that it took more than twenty years to establish and develop the Afar region’s health care system,  which lagged behind the rest of the country, the head of the region’s health bureau said “the devastation came at a time when the pastoralist communities started benefiting from those health facilities”.

As an example, a woman displaced by fighting from Chifra town gave birth to to triplets under a tree, Yasin said.

He added that children living in the region are at greater risk of malnutrition.

It is difficult to find displaced people who are on the move in one place, making it more challenging to monitor the needs of the population and to provide them with essential services, according to Yassin.

Vaccination programmes for members of the community who are not in the internally displaced persons (IDP) camps services were stopped, he said.

“Some partners are trying to scale up their response, including the immunization scheme, but it is difficult,” he added.

The head of the health bureau told the BBC Amharic  that medication and treatment for patients with long-standing health problems such as diabetes, HIV infection, tuberculosis have been discontinued.