KAMPALA: The humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders said Monday that health facilities in Ethiopia’s embattled region of Tigray have been “looted, vandalized and destroyed in a deliberate and widespread attack.”
The group said nearly 70% of 106 health facilities surveyed from mid-December to early March had been looted and more than 30% had been damaged. It said only 13% were functioning normally.
The findings deepen concern for the wellbeing of Tigray’s 6 million people. Fighting persists as government forces and their allies — including fighters reportedly from neighboring Eritrea — hunt down the region’s fugitive leaders.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed faces pressure to end the war. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last week that some of the atrocities in Tigray amount to “ethnic cleansing.”
According to Doctors Without Borders, health facilities in most areas “appear to have been deliberately vandalized to render them nonfunctional.” One-fifth of the health facilities were occupied by soldiers and few health facilities now have ambulances after most were seized by armed groups.
Group reports health facilities looted in Ethiopia’s Tigray
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Group reports health facilities looted in Ethiopia’s Tigray
Spain eyes full service on train tragedy line in 10 days
- The Jan. 18 disaster in the southern region of Andalusia partially shut the line linking Madrid and Seville
- “After the replacement, the whole of the Madrid-Seville line will resume service,” said Puente
MADRID: Spain aims to restart within 10 days full service on a key high-speed railway line where a collision between two trains killed 45 people, the transport minister said on Wednesday.
The January 18 disaster in the southern region of Andalusia — one of Europe’s deadliest such accidents this century — partially shut the line linking Madrid and the city of Seville as investigators cleared the wreckage and collected evidence.
“Today we have received legal permission to proceed with the replacement of the infrastructure in the section of the accident,” Transport Minister Oscar Puente wrote on X.
“Our aim is that it is completed in a timeframe of approximately 10 calendar days. After the replacement, the whole of the Madrid-Seville line will resume service,” he added.
The line was Spain’s first high-speed rail connection when it opened in 1992, with the network expanding to become the world’s second-largest after China’s and a source of national pride.
But the accident has raised doubts about the safety of rail travel in the country.
A preliminary report released last week suggested the track was cracked before a train run by private firm Iryo derailed and smashed into an oncoming service operated by state company Renfe.
