Addis Abeba — Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), also known as Doctors Without Borders, has launched a comprehensive primary and secondary healthcare support program in Ethiopia's East and West Wollega zones, seeking to restore access to essential services in areas where conflict, displacement, disease outbreaks and damaged health infrastructure have left communities with significant unmet needs.
Discover moreEthiopian political analysisInvestigative journalism reportsMagazines The program targets host communities and internally displaced people (IDPs), particularly those living in hard-to-reach rural areas of Oromia, while supporting selected health facilities to strengthen their capacity to provide essential and referral services.
Ethiopian election analysis The intervention comes against a backdrop of a prolonged health crisis in western Oromia, where conflict-related destruction of healthcare infrastructure, recurring malaria outbreaks, displacement and food insecurity have compounded existing barriers to healthcare.
Addis Standard has previously documented severe malaria outbreaks in West Wollega, including deaths in districts such as Begi, Kondala and Genji. Health officials and residents have also reported that the actual death toll may be higher because some malaria-related deaths occurred at home and were not formally recorded.
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Communities often lack routine primary care, while referral facilities have had little support to strengthen infection control, staff capacity and essential servicesDiscover moreNews analysisPoliticalNews Dr. Sigrid Lamberg
The malaria burden has been compounded by disruptions to healthcare delivery in conflict-affected areas. Previous reporting has documented the looting, damage and destruction of health posts, clinics and hospitals, leaving many facilities unable to operate fully and facing shortages of medicines, equipment, electricity and ambulances.
Digital news archive The crisis has also affected displaced populations across western Oromia, where hundreds of thousands of people have faced shortages of food and clean water, poor living conditions and acute malnutrition, increasing their vulnerability to disease outbreaks and other health emergencies.
These overlapping pressures have made access to timely healthcare particularly difficult in East and West Wollega, MSF said. Limited movement of patients, health workers and medical supplies, shortages of medicines and medical equipment, financial barriers and weak referral systems have constrained service delivery, with some facilities operating at reduced capacity or experiencing temporary interruptions.
"The area has unmet health needs," said Dr. Sigrid Lamberg, MSF country director in Ethiopia. "Communities often lack routine primary care, while referral facilities have had little support to strengthen infection control, staff capacity and essential services."
"The limited presence of international organizations in this area has created significant and growing gaps in essential health services. These gaps mean that people often delay seeking care or travel long distances when they become ill."
In response, MSF has begun operating mobile clinics in East and West Wollega, bringing primary healthcare directly to communities with limited access to functioning health facilities.
The mobile teams provide outpatient consultations, routine nutrition assessments, health promotion activities and essential medicines. The outreach is also intended to help address preventable illness and deaths in communities where access to routine care has been disrupted.
The intervention includes a focus on malaria, a particularly significant concern in the region. Previous malaria outbreaks in West Wollega have placed additional pressure on already strained health facilities, while displacement, inadequate access to clean water and food insecurity have increased the vulnerability of affected communities.
In West Wollega, MSF is also providing targeted secondary-level support to Begi Hospital, which serves a catchment population of approximately one million people.
The organization is working with hospital staff to strengthen infection prevention and control systems and build the capacity of health workers. The support is being introduced in phases, beginning with the maternity department, with plans to gradually reinforce broader hospital functions.
During the first month of operations in July, MSF's mobile clinics provided outpatient care and other essential services to 4,243 patients. At Begi Hospital, the MSF team handled 137 deliveries in the maternity department in collaboration with hospital staff during the same period.
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The combination of mobile primary healthcare services and support to Begi Hospital is intended to establish a more continuous pathway of care, linking communities that face barriers to basic services with a functioning secondary-level referral facility.
MSF said it is implementing the program in close partnership with Ethiopia's Ministry of Health, local health authorities and communities, with the aim of reinforcing existing public health structures rather than establishing parallel systems.
Ethiopian election analysis "Communities in East and West Wollega have faced prolonged disruptions to basic health services," said Dr. Lamberg. "Our goal is to reinforce the capacity of selected facilities and outreach services so that quality care can be delivered closer to the communities who need it most. It's a collaborative approach to ensure that our support strengthens existing health structures rather than creating parallel systems."
