Ethiopia: Ministry of Health Warns Striking Healthcare Workers to Return to Work, Threatens Govt’s Patience ‘Has Its Limits’
Addis Abeba — Dr. Mekdes Dhaba, Minister of Health. Picture: Ministry of Health
The Ministry of Health has issued a stern warning to healthcare professionals participating in the ongoing partial strike, cautioning that “strikes in the health sector are legally prohibited,” and vowing legal consequences for those “who refuse to return to work.”
It is “a well-established public fact” that the Ministry of Health is “diligently working” to ensure access to quality and equitable health services by formulating policies and strategies that promote public ownership, the Ministry said in a statement released tonight.
The Ministry cautioned that “healthcare is one of the social services that should never be interrupted under any circumstances” and claimed that “regular healthcare services have been provided… without any disruption or hindrance.”
However, the Ministry acknowledged “disruptions: in some institutions, blaming the absence of healthcare workers on “false information circulating on social media” and “a few” individuals with “malicious intentions.”
“We have received information that some professionals in a few teaching health colleges/institutions have not been present at their regular workstations,” the Ministry said. “This act, beyond harming one’s own family, relatives, and the entire community, is unacceptable from a professional ethics and humanitarian perspective.”
The Ministry also said that healthcare professionals are “expected to be present at their workstations, perform their regular duties, and present their issues to the relevant authorities,” and warned that “the government’s patience in resolving the issue with an open mind has its limits.”
Health professionals should “recognize their professional oath”, the Ministry said, and warned that “necessary legal action will be taken against those who are not present at their workstations and those who create unrest and chaos within or outside health facilities.”
The statement comes amid the third day of partial strike by health workers. Amnesty International has condemned what it describes as a crackdown on striking healthcare workers, saying professionals are being “arbitrarily rounded up” by security forces across multiple regions in Ethiopia.
In a statement to Addis Standard, Amnesty’s East and Southern Africa Regional Office said the government’s response reflects “a broader trend” of repression. The organization reported receiving an alert from a healthcare professionals’ association that its president, Yonatan Dagnaw, was detained on 4 May and remains in detention.
Amnesty called on authorities to “end their harassment of healthcare professionals for exercising their freedom of expression and peaceful assembly” and to “immediately release Yonatan and all other healthcare workers who have been detained arbitrarily.”
The strike, which entered its third day on Thursday, began as a peaceful, partial protest demanding improved wages and working conditions. It followed weeks of online mobilization under hashtags like #HealthWorkersMatter and #PayHealthWorkersFairly, and coordinated pre-strike protests in several hospitals, including Tibebe Ghion Comprehensive Specialized Hospital.
There have been multiple reports of detentions and intimidation. In Leku, Sidama Region, a family member told Addis Standard that Dr. Dereje, the only obstetrician and gynecologist at Leku General Hospital, was taken by armed security personnel on 14 May after completing a surgery. “It is an order from above; we don’t know anything about it,” police reportedly told family members.
Other arrests have occurred at major hospitals, including St. Paul’s Hospital Millennium Medical College in Addis Ababa, where three medical trainees were reportedly detained on the second day of the strike.
Despite repeated attempts, Addis Standard was unable to obtain official comments from the Ministry prior to the public statement released Thursday.
The Ministry urged the public to “continue seeking healthcare services” as usual and to ignore what it called “false information circulating on various social media platforms.”
Crédito: Link de origem