Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, Director General of the World Health Organisation (WHO), has urged the media and the international community to give the Tigray crisis the attention it deserves.
Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday at a news conference in Geneva that the fight in the Tigray region of Ethiopia, where government troops and separatist forces had been locked in conflict since November 2020, was not getting the desired attention from the international community and the media.
The latest surge in violence began in August, after a fragile five-month humanitarian truce, which has halted aid deliveries to the northern Ethiopian region, where around five million civilians are in need
Aid distribution continues to be hampered by a lack of fuel, and a communications shutdown across Tigray, while Tigrayan commanders have claimed that Eritrea has launched an offensive in support of Ethiopian government forces, according to news reports.
Highlighting that there is no other situation globally in which six million people had been kept under siege for almost two years, Ghebreyesus, warned that there is a very narrow window to preventing genocide in Tigray.
“I’m running out of diplomatic language for the deliberate targeting of civilians in Tigray, Ethiopia,” he said during his regular news conference at WHO headquarters.
Quoting the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the WHO chief said: “The situation in Ethiopia is spiralling out of control. The social fabric is being ripped apart and civilians are paying a horrific price.
“Hostilities in Tigray must end now – including the immediate withdrawal and disengagement of Eritrean armed forces from Ethiopia.”
According to him, the United Nations Human Rights Office has received reports of civilian casualties and destruction of civilian objects due to airstrikes and artillery strikes.
He said the indiscriminate attacks or attacks that deliberately target civilians or civilian objects amount to war crimes, emphasising that there is no other situation globally in which six million people have been kept under siege for almost two years.
“Banking, fuel, food, electricity and health care are being used as weapons of war. Media is also not allowed and destruction of civilians is done in darkness.
“Even people who have money are starving because they can’t access it. Children are dying every day from malnutrition,’’ the WHO chief said.
Ghebreyesus said treatable diseases such as tuberculosis, HIV, diabetes, and hypertension had become death sentences in Tigray because of lack of services.
“Yes, I’m from Tigray, and yes, this affects me personally. I don’t pretend it doesn’t. Most of my relatives are in the most affected areas, more than 90 per cent of them.
“But my job is to draw the world’s attention to crises that threaten the health of people wherever they are.
“This is a health crisis for six million people, and the world is not paying enough attention,” he stressed.
He also addressed more global health issues during his regular briefing, including COVID-19, which remains a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.
“While the global situation has obviously improved since the pandemic began, the virus continues to change, and there remain many risks and uncertainties,” he explained.
The WHO chief, however, warned that the pandemic had surprised us before and “very well could again”.
