ETHIOPIA HAS PREVENTED DELIVERY OF HEALTH SUPPLIES TO TIGRAY SINCE LAST JULY: WHO

Sun 16 January 2022:

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Saturday that Ethiopia has prevented it from delivering health supplies to violence-hit Tigray since last July.

The UN health agency was responding to Ethiopian allegations against its chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who is from the northern Ethiopian region.

In a statement to Anadolu Agency, the WHO said it has repeatedly called for urgent and unimpeded access to deliver health supplies to the people of Tigray, where the government’s federal forces are fighting the rebellious Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which once dominated Ethiopian politics, for 14 months.

Thousands have since been killed and millions displaced, with hundreds of thousands facing famine-like conditions.

Ethiopia on Friday withdrew support for its national, Tedros, after his remarks that the government is blocking humanitarian aid to the region, an accusation Ethiopia denies.

In a letter to the WHO’s Executive Board, Ethiopia stated its objection to Tedros’ “moral, legal and professional standing,” claiming it “threatened” WHO’s organizational integrity.

It urged the WHO to commission an investigation on Tedros to identify his “misconduct and violation of his professional and legal responsibility.”

The letter accused the WHO chief of “interfering in the internal affairs” of Ethiopia, including its relations with neighboring Eritrea.

“The World Health Organization Secretariat is aware that the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has dispatched a note verbale,” the WHO told Anadolu Agency.

It “will continue to ask the Ethiopian government to allow access to deliver humanitarian supplies and services to the 7 million people in Tigray, Ethiopia, living under de facto blockade …”

The statement added: “Since July 15, 2021, the WHO has been prevented from delivering health supplies to Tigray despite multiple requests to Ethiopian authorities.”

The WHO said that as in all conflicts, its fundamental call and that from the international community is to gain access to affected populations such that that affected civilians, including displaced people, are safe and healthy. “This is true for Tigray and elsewhere in northern Ethiopia.”

Tedros, who became the first African WHO director-general in 2017, had earlier denied accusations that he was taking sides in the conflict.

-AA

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