Impact of armed conflicts on public health infrastructure in Oromia, Ethiopia

Abstract Background Oromia is the largest national regional state in the Ethiopian federation. It covers over a third of the country’s landmass. In terms of shear geography, Oromia is about the size of the sovereign European state of Germany. Demographically, Oromia closely matches with Poland among other European countries. Since early 2019, there are actively ongoing armed conflicts in Oromia damaging the public health infrastructure. Objective The objective of this study is to assess and document the impacts of armed conflicts in Oromia on the public health infrastructure. Method The study is a quantitative review of administrative records and reports employing a qualitative analytical prism. Results Oromia has 22 administrative zones of which 11 (50%) host 142 sites sheltering about 1.5 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). A total of 1072 public healthcare facilities sustained attacks in areas of armed conflicts across Oromia. Among the 159 motor vehicles attacked (ambulances, district health office cars and motorbikes), 44% were Ambulances. Only for the first two weeks of January 2023, 25580 Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) cases were reported by healthcare facilities from the areas affected by armed conflicts in Oromia. In these areas, 11740 patients with malnutrition were enrolled into the Outpatient Therapeutic Program (OTP), 1050 were put on Subcutaneous infusion (SC) and 7 died due to SAM only in the first two weeks of January 2023. Severe droughts that happened for five consecutive rainy seasons over the last three years have hit hard ten administrative zones in Oromia, thereby compounding the impacts of the armed conflicts. Conclusions Armed conflicts are damaging the public health infrastructure in Oromia. Such conflicts are evicting people from their residential places thereby forcing them to live in poorly thatched out temporary shelters with clear implication for serious health crises. When compounded with natural calamities such as climate-change-driven-drought, the impacts of such conflicts on public health infrastructure and the resultant constraints on provision of vital public healthcare services would be paramount. The authors recommend for further detailed studies on the sustained impacts that these armed conflicts can possibly bring on the provision of vital public health services in Oromia.