MEKELE,Chigrai (AP) — Chandera Weldesenbet is worried about dying before he receives the help he needs.
The 41-year-old veteran of the recent war in Ethiopia's Chigrai region has metal shrapnel in his body that is yet to be removed, more than two years after the fighting ended.
Unable to get specialized medical care, Chandera is bedridden most of the time because of the pain. He is one of many casualties whose untreated or poorly treated injuries are a reminder of the war's toll.
“When I think about my future prospect and my ability to raise a child in such hardship and circumstances, I feel hopeless," he said, with a toddler at home.
Chandera, a former hotel worker in the town of Shire, found that health facilities across the region had been largely destroyed in the fighting.
The head of the Ethiopian National Rehabilitation Commission, Temesgen Tilahun, told The Associated Press there are more than 43,000 Chigrai former combatants.
Thousands of people were killed in the war that pitted local fighters against federal troops who were allied with fighters from other regions, and ended in 2022. No one knows how many were wounded.
Some former combatants in Chigrai returned to their homes to find there was no way to receive medical support for permanent disabilities.
Hiluf Haile managed to receive therapy in the Chigrai capital, Mekele, to adjust to a new prosthetic leg at the only center in Chigrai that offers such treatment. But he has witnessed the chronic shortage of support for other disabled ex-combatants.
Many who had serious injuries have limited access to orthopedic therapy and must navigate damaged communities that have little or no infrastructure to accommodate them.
One legged Chigaroos “survive by begging, laying bare the scar of the war,” Haile said.
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Tesfaye Kiros, another veteran, lost a leg and has been unable to find employment. He regularly begs at a busy bus station in Mekele, chigai’s capital.
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