Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has launched a comprehensive general and specialist healthcare programme in the East Wollega and West Wollega zones of Ethiopia’s Oromia region.
We aim to restore access to essential services for host communities and internally displaced people in hard-to-reach rural areas, while strengthening the capacity of key health facilities.
In these rural zones, limited movement of patients, staff and supplies – along with shortages of medicines and medical equipment, financial barriers and weak referral systems – have made it harder to deliver timely, quality healthcare. Some facilities have operated at reduced capacity or faced temporary interruptions.
As a result, communities have experienced untreated illness, challenges in sustaining immunisation and maternal health services, a high burden of malaria along with a greater risk of disease outbreaks, and increased pressure on the health facilities that remain functional.
Despite the scale of need, the presence of humanitarian organisations in these zones remains limited, leaving significant gaps in both general and specialist care.
“The area has unmet health needs,” said Dr Sigrid Lamberg, MSF country director in Ethiopia. “Communities often lack routine care, while referral facilities have had little support to strengthen infection control, staff capacity and essential services.”
“The limited presence of international organisations in this area has created significant and growing gaps in essential health services,” says Dr Lamberg. “These gaps mean that people often delay seeking care or travel long distances when they become ill.”
In response, we started running mobile clinics that bring healthcare directly to areas with limited access in East Wollega and West Wollega. These mobile teams provide outpatient consultations, routine nutrition assessments, health promotion activities, and essential medicines with a strong aim to reduce preventable deaths. In West Wollega, MSF is providing targeted specialist-level support to Begi hospital, which serves a larger catchment of approximately 1 million people.
Our team focuses on strengthening infection prevention and control systems and building the capacity of health workers. This support is being rolled out in phases, beginning with the maternity department, with the aim of gradually reinforcing broader hospital functions.
In July, the first month of operations, the mobile clinics provided outpatient care and essential services to 4,243 people; during the same period, at Begi hospital’s maternity department, our team supported 137 deliveries in collaboration with hospital staff.
By combining outreach with support to a key referral facility, our activities seek to create a more continuous and resilient pathway of care. Throughout the implementation of the programme, MSF has been working in close partnership with the Ministry of Health, local health authorities, and local communities.
“Communities in East Wollega 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,” they conclude.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Médecins sans frontières (MSF).
