ELL Eritrean Lowland League
Despite a deliberate media blackout by the authorities in Eritrea, news about the outbreak of a cholera epidemic has started coming out in bits and pieces.
Confirmed reports from Bedda, in the Dankalia region indicate that five citizens have died and forty-five others in the same village have been infected. The Government of Eritrea has not yet taken any steps to contain this deadly epidemic which, in the absence of proper and timely counter measures, is expected to spread rapidly to other parts of Dankalia.
The information available so far has been received from reliable sources in the Red Sea Afar Democratic Organization (RSADO) from within the region. These sources disclosed that the death toll was a result of lack of proper healthcare and carelessness on the part of the relevant authorities. Over forty-five cases – men, women and children, suffering from the clear symptoms of cholera have been admitted to the hospital at Bedda which lacks the most basic resources, and has no capability to deal with such a serious situation that is expected to get worse as more and more people get infected due to negligence, lack of medicines and non-existent quarantine facilities.
Many citizens in the region who tried to cross the border into Ethiopia to either flee the danger zone or to try and get the required medication to bring back to Bedda to save their loved ones, have confirmed that the security authorities prevented them from doing so at gun point. This attitude by the security authorities bears the hallmark of the Eritrean regime’s despicable policy of systematic ethnic cleansing targeted at the Afar people.
It is a known fact that not only the hospital at Bedda, but all the health centers in the Dankalia region lack the most basic health and pharmaceutical necessities. The regime’s media is turning a blind eye to this humanitarian crisis, while at the same time trying to whitewash the graveness of the situation in the region that has long being afflicted by famine and epidemics induced by the erroneous policies of HGDEF and with this current situation, the suffering is expected to increase in magnitude and geographical scope.
Given the seriousness of the situation in the region and to forestall a major humanitarian disaster, RSADO has appealed to regional and international organizations – governments and NGOs alike, to take their humanitarian responsibility and provide support and aid to thousands of people threatened by famine and disease in Dankalia.
Source: Eritrean Monitoring Network News
Translation: Mohammed Hiyabu
Cairo، Egypt.
