Amnesty raises concern over “crackdown” on health workers in Ethiopia

Amnesty International says healthcare workers are being “arbitrarily rounded up” by security forces in multiple locations across Ethiopia, amid a partial nationwide strike by health professionals that entered its third day on Thursday.

In an exclusive statement to Addis Standard, Amnesty International’ East and Southern Africa Regional office expressed concern that what it described as “a crackdown” on healthcare professionals is not an isolated incident, but part of a broader trend in which “authorities have frequently cracked down on dissent,” including the targeting of “human rights defenders and journalists.”

Amnesty also said it had received “an alert from the healthcare professionals’ association” indicating that its president, Yonatan Dagnaw, “was arrested on May 4, 2025 and is still in detention.”

The organisation 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.”

According to the statement, health professionals are currently holding a “partial, peaceful strike” demanding improved pay and working conditions. Amnesty urged authorities to “respect the professionals’ right to engage in a peaceful strike” and to ensure that “law enforcement bodies respect, facilitate, and protect the protesters.”

The statement from Amnesty International comes as the nationwide partial strike by health workers continues, with multiple reports of detentions and intimidation.

In the Sidama Region, in the town of Leku, a family member told Addis Standard that Dr. Dereje, an obstetrician and gynaecologist at Leku General Hospital, was “taken by security forces” on Tuesday, May 14. According to the source, the doctor had “performed surgery around 2:00 pm” and returned to his residence within the hospital compound around 5:00 pm when “armed personnel took him away.” The family member described the incident as “unexpected and frightening.”

The same source said Dr Dereje had “a scheduled surgery at 8:00 pm” that evening and stressed that he is “the only obstetrician and gynaecologist” at the facility. “When family members tried to ask where he was taken,” the source said, “police officers replied, ‘It is an order from above; we don’t know anything about it.’”

Addis Standard previously reported that on the second day of the strike, several health professionals and medical students were detained across various hospitals, including St. Paul’s Hospital Millennium Medical College, where three trainees — two interns and one fifth-year student — were arrested.

This followed the first day of the strike, on Tuesday, during which Addis Standard reported that health professionals across Ethiopia faced intimidation and pressure from local authorities as they attempted to participate in the strike.

The strike follows a month-long online mobilisation under hashtags such as #HealthWorkersMatter and #PayHealthWorkersFairly. It was preceded by coordinated pre-strike protests in several regions, including at Tibebe Ghion Comprehensive Specialised Hospital, where professionals called for long-overdue reforms in the healthcare sector.

Efforts by Addis Standard to obtain comments from the Ministry of Health, both in person and via written request, were unsuccessful.

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