(14 Apr 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Mekele, Ethiopia – 14 February 2025
1. Wide of Chandra Weldesenbet, a Tigrayan ex-combatant walking into his house
2. SOUNDBITE (Tigrinya) Chandra Weldesenbet, Tigrayan ex-combatant:
++PARTLY OVERLAID WITH SHOT 3, 4 AND 5++
"My eye is leaking fluid and shrapnel remains lodged in my knee. A bullet is still in my head, and I have not received any specialized treatment. Iām unable to feed my wife and child and I have nothing to eat. Here I am, living in this dilapidated tin house."
3. Wide of Weldesenbet’s wife handing him the baby
4. Weldesenbet seated outside his house with his family
5. Weldesenbet’s hand shaking due to a nerve issue
6. Wide of Mekele Ortho-Physiotherapy Center signage at the gate
7. Mid of Birhane Teame, manager of Mekele Ortho-Physiotherapy Center, showing different walking aid materials
8. SOUNDBITE (Tigrinya) Birhane Teame, Mekele Ortho-Physiotherapy Center Manager:
++PARTLY OVERLAID WITH SHOT 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 AND 15++
"We have delivered 180,000 services over the past 28 years, but this figure is not comparable to that of the last three years. The extent of damage during this period has been significant, with both direct and indirect consequences of the war being severe. In the last three years alone, we have provided 65,000 services. Therefore, the burden resting on this physiotherapy center is immense."
9. Wide of Tigrayan ex-combatants with disabilities at the waiting bay
10. Various of disabled ex-combatants walking in a therapy room
11. Various of Tigrayan ex-combatants with disabilities in the therapy room
12. Close up of shoes for Trans-femoral prosthesis
13. Various of machines producing trans-tibial prosthesis
14. Trans-tibial prostheses and shoes next to a wall
15. Trans-radial prostheses hanging on a wall
STORYLINE:
Chandera Weldesenbet is worried about dying before he receives the help he needs.
The 41-year-old veteran of the recent war in Ethiopia’s Tigray region has metal shrapnel in his body that is yet to be removed, more than two years after the fighting ended.
Unable to get specialized medical care, Chandera is bedridden most of the time because of the pain.
He is one of many casualties whose untreated or poorly treated injuries are a reminder of the war’s toll.
Chandera, a former hotel worker in the town of Shire, found that health facilities across the region had been largely destroyed in the fighting.
The head of the Ethiopian National Rehabilitation Commission, Temesgen Tilahun, told The Associated Press there are more than 43,000 Tigrayan former combatants.
Thousands of people were killed in the war that pitted local fighters against federal troops who were allied with fighters from other regions, and ended in 2022.
No one knows how many were wounded.
Some former combatants in Tigray returned to their homes to find there was no way to receive medical support for permanent disabilities.
With limited resources as Tigray recovers from the war, the regional government has appealed to the federal government in Addis Ababa, the capital, for more support ā and for international donors to come to the rescue.
The government has offered veterans reintegration into the armed forces.
The Mekelle Ortho-Physiotherapy Center, which has operated in Tigray for nearly three decades with support from the International Committee of the Red Cross, is trying to fill the gap.
The group has treated disabled combatants, providing prosthetic limbs and mobility aid such as crutches.
AP video by Amanuel Gebremedhin Birhane
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