Amnesty International has called on the Ethiopian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release healthcare workers detained for taking part in a nationwide strike, which police claim is jeopardising patient safety.
Medical professionals across Ethiopia began striking on May 12 in protest over poor pay and working conditions.
Amnesty International noted that even highly trained specialists earn as little as $80 (£63) a day in the East African nation.
The rights organisation reported that 20 healthcare workers, including Dr. Mahlet Guuesh, recently interviewed by the BBC, are currently being held at police headquarters in the capital, Addis Ababa.
Tigere Chagutah, Amnesty’s regional director for East and Southern Africa, criticised the detentions as “shameful and deeply troubling,” urging the Ethiopian government to stop targeting workers exercising their lawful right to protest.
“All those arbitrarily detained for speaking out for their rights must be released,” Amnesty said in a statement.
In Ethiopia, dissent is frequently met with repression. On May 15, the health ministry declared healthcare worker strikes illegal, warning that the government’s “patience” in handling the situation was wearing thin.
Authorities escalated their response on Friday, announcing the arrest of 47 individuals accused of “organising an illegal strike,” “creating chaos in the health sector,” and “endangering the lives of patients,” according to the state-run broadcaster EBC.
A doctor working at a hospital in Addis Ababa told AFP that around 90 per cent of services had been affected at his facility.
Speaking anonymously for safety reasons, he said the strike was not politically motivated but rather driven by dire economic realities.
“We are on strike simply because we cannot survive and live in the current conditions,” another health worker added.
Ethiopia, with a population of approximately 130 million, continues to grapple with deep poverty. Around a third of its citizens live below the World Bank’s poverty threshold of $2.15 per day.
