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With a population of 7 million, Tigray regional state is located in the northern part of Ethiopia. The war in Tigray erupted on 4 November 2020, and is still ongoing. Nearly 20 months on, displacement, death, and destruction of healthcare facilities have become the defining elements of this armed conflict, putting millions of lives at risk. The war has led to a near-total collapse of the Tigray region’s healthcare system, rendering 70–80% of healthcare facilities in the Tigray region dysfunctional.
Mekelle University (Ayder) Hospital, established in 2008, is located in Tigray’s capital Mekelle. It is the flagship healthcare facility in Tigray and serves more than 10 million people from Tigray, from Afar, from the northern districts of the Amhara region, and from Eritrea. Since 2011, its cardiology unit has been equipped with modern resting and stress Holter-ECG, Holter blood pressure monitors, and echocardiography machines. After the first heart catheterization was completed successfully in 2015, the hospital has been doing primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and has been implanting permanent pacemakers with local expertise. With the help of local and international faculties, Ayder Hospital has executed more than 238 coronarographies and PCIs, 65 valvotomies, 38 pacemaker implantations, and 41 cardiac defect closures.