Hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to leave their homes in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia after fighting broke out in early November, 2020, according to OCHA. As of mid-February 2021, more than 60,000 people have crossed to Sudan as refugees while many others are displaced within the Tigray region, staying in towns, remote areas or trapped between localised outbreaks of fighting.
For those areas MSF teams could access, tens of thousands of displaced people are living in abandoned buildings and on construction sites in north western and western areas around Shire, Dansha and Humera towns, while others have found refuge in host communities in the east and south of the region. Both host communities and displaced people have very limited access to food, clean water, shelter and healthcare. In several areas our teams visited, health centers have been destroyed and looted and there is a severe lack of staff and medical supply. MSF teams have also heard reports that many people are still hiding in the mountains and in rural areas across the region. Although access has now been granted to some humanitarian organisations, there is still only a marginal scale up of humanitarian aid.