The mass arrests of Ethiopian doctors stem from a nationwide crackdown following a month-long strike organized by the EHPM. Doctors argue that billions are being wasted on vanity projects, while they can’t afford to eat
By Zecharias Zelalem
“It’s critical that the continued arbitrary detention of Dr. Daniel is understood in the context of rapidly growing patterns of authoritarian practices in Ethiopia,” Haimanot Ashenafi, Horn of Africa researcher at Amnesty International, explained to Global Voices.
We repeat our call on the authorities to release Dr. Daniel and to end the growing use of the law and the country’s institutions to oppress peaceful dissent.
She’s referring to the June 25th arrest of Dr. Daniel Fentaneh, a gynecology resident at the University of Bahir Dar. He stands accused of helping organize a labor strike that paralyzed Ethiopia’s health sector last month and led to a subsequent nationwide crackdown on doctors.
During the month-long strike, hundreds, if not thousands, of medical professionals walked off the job. Dozens of hospitals across the country were shut down.
An underground, online collective of doctors known as the Ethiopian Health Professionals Movement (EHPM) launched the strike following the Ethiopian government’s refusal to address a list of twelve grievances related to poor pay, exploitative working conditions, and safety concerns by a May 19 deadline.
Doctors were hauled to court on trumped-up charges that included collaborating with foreign forces to “wreak havoc” in Ethiopia.
Dr. Daniel was the 149th arrest of a medical professional in Ethiopia since May, according to an online database set up by the EHPM. Among those charged is Dr. Mahlet Guesh, a pathologist. She was detained on May 19, days after giving an interview to the BBC, in which she explained that the monthly salary of pathologists in the Republic of Somaliland equaled the combined wages of twenty Ethiopian MDs. She spent just over three weeks behind bars.
Human Rights Watch denounced the police actions. But the government has doubled down, adamant that it is merely enforcing the law.
Dereje Duguma, the state minister for the program wing at the Ministry of Health, said in a state media broadcast:
Doctors cannot go on strike, it’s a criminal offense [in Ethiopia]. [Doctors] are being instructed by political activists to use social media to threaten colleagues who go to work. The government will carry out punitive measures against them.
Not so, says Haimanot of Amnesty International, who asserts that it’s the protesting doctors who are aligned with the law.
The accusations against Dr. Daniel are a testament that he was detained for exercising his individual right to freedom of expression. It also reveals that the authorities are now publicly labeling people’s right to assembly as a crime, a narrative that contradicts the country’s constitution.
Why did doctors go on strike?
Last month’s strike wasn’t the first time Ethiopian doctors engaged in civil disobedience. In 2019, they boycotted work before coming to an agreement with the authorities, who promised to implement solutions.
That was before Ethiopia was engulfed by its brutal Tigray war, which killed hundreds of thousands from 2020 to 2022, brought the country’s economy to the brink of ruin, and skyrocketed living costs. There are ongoing conflicts in the country’s two most populous regions, Oromia and Amhara.
Following a ceasefire, sensitive negotiations with the International Monetary Fund to secure billions in loans to rebuild the country led to the government overseeing the devaluation of the local birr currency by over 100 percent last year. While the country has secured financing, it has not provided relief for workers across the country, many of whom are on the same wages they were prior to the currency devaluation.
In Tigray, Dr. Girmay (a pseudonym for safety reasons), who was among the striking doctors, explained his predicament to Global Voices:
I come from a poor family. I currently earn a monthly base salary of 7,633 birr (about 56 USD). I feel broken inside, as let alone providing for my parents, I can’t afford rent or even a change of clothes. Today, I wear the same clothes I wore throughout medical school.
In comparison, last year, striking doctors in neighboring Kenya rejected a government offer of monthly wages amounting to about USD 550, demanding nearly triple that figure, almost twenty times what most Ethiopian doctors earn.
Then there is the issue of the workload. Dr. Girmay explained:
At major hospitals, we are sometimes expected to cover overnight shifts with a team of as little as four or five staff members. The exploitation is worse here than it is elsewhere in Ethiopia.
Safety issues are compounded in war-torn regions of Ethiopia. Last year, a report by Human Rights Watch outlined a systemic pattern of abuse and killings of health professionals in the country’s northwestern Amhara region, by Ethiopian soldiers who accused them of sympathizing with local rebels.
Financial woes
The Ethiopian government’s position is that economic hardships make it difficult to immediately meet the financial demands of the strikers.
The USAID freeze ordered by US President Donald Trump earlier this year has significantly crippled national disease prevention initiatives.
According to a new report by Action Aid, public sector budget cuts that accompany IMF agreements have devastated the health sectors of six African countries, including Ethiopia. Of the surveyed Ethiopian health workers, 95 percent reported worsening shortages of equipment and vaccines.
However, a slew of vanity projects, including a new palace for Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed costing a reported USD 10–15 billion and a controversial urban beautification project, are regularly cited as wasteful spending that could go to the health sector.
Jawar Mohammed, Deputy Chairman of the Oromo Federalist Congress opposition party, told Global Voices,
These doctors are asking for the bare minimum living wage. The government can easily raise their salaries multiple times by re-channeling the multibillion dollars being wasted on fancy projects.
EHPM: There’s more to come
Throughout the strike, the EHPM’s social media pages posted updates and documented police intimidation for hundreds of thousands of followers.
Dr. Emebet (a pseudonym for safety reasons), a movement coordinator, told Global Voices that the labour strike was a spontaneous uprising.
How did [protesting MDs] come together so quickly? We have to eat. You won’t be afraid that you’ll be out of a job when the job you have doesn’t pay you enough to eat three times a day, let alone feed your family.
The EHPM denies the government’s accusation that the strike endangered patients. During the strike, the movement disseminated instructions to keep hospital emergency rooms running.
Ethiopia’s Health Ministry insisted that the strike had minimal impact on its establishments. However, a leaked internal memo seen by Global Voices shows that on May 26, the ministry acknowledged strike-induced labor shortages. In the letter, a ministry official and member of parliament, Seharla Abdulahi, orders twenty-two medical schools across the country to submit the names of striking resident physicians.
Other documents sent to Global Voices showed hospitals across the country issuing threatening ultimatums to striking employees, and trying to fill the labour void by mass hiring replacements.
The prominent St. Paul’s Hospital Millennium Medical College in Addis Ababa, for instance, announced during the strike that it was actively trying to fill 400 open positions, at paltry salaries ranging from USD 62–78 monthly.
Despite everything, the government claims that dialogue between government officials and doctors is proving successful. Health Minister Dr. Mekdes Daba explained in a state media interview
We are keen on addressing doctor grievances and are meeting with them and the greater community. A majority of the issues have been resolved and we are working on solving the rest.
Dr. Mekdes did not specify what issues were resolved, and wouldn’t respond to emailed requests for clarification.
On June 20, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed held a televised meeting with selected medical professionals. Despite halfhearted pledges to address underlying issues, the Prime Minister spent much of the meeting berating striking doctors, calling them “politicians in gowns.” Unhappy with Abiy’s remarks, the EHPM has described the meeting with the Prime Minister as being “a performance designed to undermine our movement and offer false hope.”
While the strike was ostensibly ended to give the parties a chance to talk, the movement has warned that a second phase could follow if action to implement reform isn’t carried out within a two-month window.
