Ethiopians dying in agony due to lack of opioids while west battles a surfeit

Palliative care nurse Filagot Tadele gives basic painkillers to cancer patient Kedija Deltera in Addis Ababa – all she can offer in the absence of morphine. Photograph: Fred Harter

Filagot Tadele, a palliative care nurse, spends her days crisscrossing Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, caring for cancer and HIV patients. Many of them are slowly dying and in extraordinary pain.

She carries with her a box of assorted medicines, but lacks the one drug she needs to relieve suffering: oral morphine. The powerful opioid is not made in Ethiopia and shortages of imported medicines mean it has disappeared from pharmacy shelves.