June 15, 2025

File photo : Striking Ethiopian Doctors (SM)
By Worku Aberra
Introduction
The nationwide strike of doctors that began on May 13 has now entered its fourth week, with no resolution in sight. It is the first such action by professionals in Ethiopia’s recent history and stands as a rare moment of unity in a divided polity. Despite the government’s attempt to divide the doctors, they have maintained a common position in defiance of the country’s ethnically fragmented political system.
The strike is historically significant. Its scale, duration, and unity set it apart from previous labor actions. It directly confronts an authoritarian government and has withstood threats, intimidation, and the imprisonment of its leaders. Public support remains strong, and the strike has come to symbolize the power of collective resistance.
The government is unsettled. It cannot meet the doctors’ salary demands primarily because of political risk. Officials fear that the strike might encourage other public sector workers and weaken political control. The strike carries political weight: when professionals unite around principle, their message exceeds wages and working conditions. What unsettles the regime most is the shift from economic grievance to political defiance.
Salaries and Workplace Demands
The doctors’ demands—adequate pay and functional working conditions—reflect the minimal requirements for professional service delivery. Their salaries have collapsed in real terms, making their demand for higher wages a demand for basic subsistence. Unless their essential needs are met, it is unrealistic to expect them to deliver essential care.
Physicians have demanded a starting salary of $1,000 month, consistent with their training and living costs. Today, most general practitioners earn only 10,000 to 15,000 birr—roughly $70 to $100 USD—while specialists earn marginally more. Doctors also request timely overtime payments and targeted allowances for housing, service in remote areas, and occupational hazards, especially for those harmed while treating others.
The medical system offers neither fair compensation nor the tools required to deliver healthcare services. Doctors face growing difficulty in performing basic tasks because of chronic shortages of equipment and medication. According to a 2025 study by ActionAid, 95% of Ethiopian healthcare workers reported an absence of essential supplies. They are not simply requesting better pay; they are insisting on the ability to serve patients without institutional obstruction, material deprivation, or personal risk.
Political interference and threats to personal safety compound the crisis. In regions affected by conflict, the situation is even more dire. In Amhara region, government forces have reportedly destroyed clinics, targeted health workers, and attacked civilians, according to Human Rights Watch. Crops have been burned, livestock slaughtered, and schools razed. The war between the military and Fano has severely damaged public health. Doctors who attempt to help face harassment, detention, or extrajudicial killing.
Their demands are not aspirational. They are existential. A starving doctor, stripped of medicine and hounded by security forces, cannot save lives. The strike is not a rejection of duty, but a defense of the conditions required to fulfill it.
Institutional and Legal Demands
Equally urgent is the need for legal protection. Since the strike began on May 13, 2025, more than 200 healthcare workers have been arbitrarily detained, according to Amnesty International. Doctors have been harassed, summoned for questioning, and removed from their posts—in some cases, killed before or during the strike. Under these conditions, demands for safety and legal redress are not only legitimate but necessary.
The doctors also seek structural reform. They demand greater autonomy for health institutions, free from political intervention. Leadership based on merit rather than ethnic affiliation remains central to their demands. They are also calling for safeguards against public defamation by state media and officials, who have dismissed the strike as unethical, unprofessional, and unpatriotic, according to Amnesty International.
In addition to better pay, better working conditions, and personal safety, doctors want their basic social needs met. They are asking for free healthcare for themselves and their families, as well as long-term access to low-interest housing loans or subsidized accommodations. These requests reflect the fact that many doctors struggle to access the very services they provide, even as senior government officials enjoy such benefits despite earning more.
Finally, doctors are calling for investment in professional development. This includes access to international medical examinations and certifications within Ethiopia, which would allow international recognition and career mobility, as in countries like Uganda and Kenya.
Taken together, these demands expose a healthcare system in crisis: underpaid, overburdened, neglected, and politicized. This is not merely a labor dispute; it is a national reckoning over the value of healthcare and public service...
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