The World Health Organization’s (WHO) Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Wednesday condemned the dire situation in Ethiopia’s conflict-torn Tigray region, warning that urgent action was needed to avert a genocide, reported The National News.
“The world is not paying enough attention,” Ghebreyesus told reporters from WHO headquarters in Geneva. “There is a very narrow window now to prevent genocide in Tigray.”
Hailing from the embattled Tigray region, the WHO chief said Tigrayans had essentially been blocked off from essential services since the conflict began in November 2020.
He said there is no other situation globally in which around six million people are being kept under siege since last two years and where banking, food, healthcare and electricity are being used as weapons of war.
The conflict started on November 4, 2020, when Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ordered military troops into Tigray after accusing the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) of attacking army camps. The war has killed hundreds of civilians and forced more than two million people to flee from their homes, according to UN figures.
Fighting between the Ethiopian government forces and the Tigrayan rebel forces intensified in recent months after a ceasefire broke down in August.
With the conflict nearing its second anniversary, the Ethiopian military on Tuesday said it had captured three towns in Tigray, including Shire, which had a pre-war population of 100,000.
The WHO chief insisted that the hostilities in Tigray must end now, including the immediate withdrawal and disengagement of Eritrean armed forces from Ethiopia.
In related news, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) called for the United Nations, the United States, and the European Union to apply targeted sanctions and an arms embargo against Ethiopia to help protect civilian lives.
“The suffering of civilians in Ethiopia should no longer be tolerated in the name of political expediency,” said Laetitia Bader, HRW’s director for the Horn of Africa.
She said the attacks have resulted in a lot of civilian casualties, including the death of aid workers delivering food, property destruction, and large-scale displacement.
