WHO chief deplores situation in Tigray, northern Ethiopia

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus suggested that discrimination and racism could explain the fact that the situation in Tigray continues to be indifferent.

On Wednesday, the World Health Organization issued a cry of alarm about the humanitarian situation in Tigray, “the worst disaster in the world,” accusing the leaders of developed countries of neglecting the crisis in this region of Ethiopia, the scene of a deadly conflict between the government and the rebels.

The Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has denounced the “unimaginable cruelty” against six million people living in this region in northern Ethiopia whose powers are in conflict with the federal government.

The conflict began in November 2020 when Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed launched a military operation in the region to oust the Tigrayan rebel authorities from the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, accusing them of attacking federal army camps.

Since the beginning of the conflict, the region has suffered from food shortages and significantly reduced access to basic services such as electricity, telecommunications and banking.

“The result: the people of Tigray face multiple epidemics of malaria, anthrax, cholera, diarrhea and other diseases,” Tedros lamented himself from Tigray at a press conference in Geneva.

“Maybe it’s the color of the tigray skin.”

The head of the World Health Organization stressed that this “unthinkable brutal situation must end. The only solution is peace,” calling on the Ethiopian government to resolve the conflict “in a peaceful way.” Fighting has subsided since the humanitarian truce was declared at the end of March, allowing international aid convoys to resume to Tigray.

But according to the head of the World Health Organization, food and medicine only reach the region in droplets. He said that basic services must be restored to restore confidence in the peace negotiations.

The Director-General of the World Health Organization also noted that discrimination and racism could explain why the situation in Tigray remains indifferent, despite it being “the worst humanitarian crisis in the world”.

“Maybe it’s the color of Tigray’s skin. In the past few months I haven’t heard a head of state anywhere mention the situation in Tigray, especially in the developed world. Why? I think we know that.”

“It is the worst catastrophe in the world and I am talking to you (…) It is the pure truth,” he stressed. He added that “the drought that hit the Horn of Africa exacerbates the crisis.”