You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.

Hello Shortwaveers, Erin Scott here with Ari Daniel, a reporter on our Global Health

and Development Team.

Hey there, Ari.

Hey, Erin.

So you're here to talk to us about your reporting on the Civil War in Ethiopia.

Yes, it's a conflict that UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres describes as spiraling out

of control.

Here he is speaking at the UN Security Council.

Violence and destruction have reached alarming levels.

The social fabric is being ripped apart.

Things sound really, really terrible, Ari.

How long has this been going on?

Well, the conflict in the Tigray region started nearly two years ago, and a recent UN report

accused all parties involved of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity.

And one of the biggest casualties of this war has been Tigray's health system.

For instance, last month I spoke with Faseka Amdislase, a surgeon at Tigray's Eiter Comprehensive

Specialized Hospital.

Our patients are not getting basic medicines like antibiotics, IV fluids, oxygen.

But without these basic kinds of medical supplies, he's watched patients die.

Seeing the hopelessness in their eyes and being the one to tell them that you cannot help

them, that they are going to die soon as a first hand witness, as a physician is very

...