Ethiopia’s foreign ministry has called on the World Health Organisation (WHO) to investigate its leader for supporting rebellious forces fighting the Ethiopian government.
WHO Director-General (D-G)Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who previously served as the Ethiopian health minister and foreign minister, said earlier this week that aid was being blocked from getting through to his home region of Tigray, where rebellious forces are fighting the central government.
“Tedros Adhanom’s moral, legal and professional standing that threatened WHO’s organisational standing,” Ethiopia said in a statement late on Thursday. “He has spread harmful misinformation and compromised WHO’s reputation, independence, credibility which is evident from his social media postings.”
The WHO said in an emailed response to Reuters request for comment that it was aware that Ethiopia’s foreign affairs ministry had sent a diplomatic communication, called a note verbale.
It said the WHO “will continue to ask the Ethiopian government to allow access to deliver humanitarian supplies and services to the 7 million people in Tigray, Ethiopia”.
The “WHO and partners have been repeatedly calling for urgent and unimpeded access to deliver humanitarian heath supplies and services to the people in Tigray.”
The government has denied blocking aid and has accused the rebellious forces of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) of requisitioning trucks sent in previously.
Ethiopia’s army chief has previously accused Dr Ghebreyesus of trying to procure arms and diplomatic backing for the TPLF. He denied that.
The United Nations says the government is operating a de facto blockade of humanitarian aid to Tigray; no trucks have entered the region since December 15. More than 90 per cent of the population needs food aid and doctors told Reuters last week that many people – including malnourished children – are dying because no medicine has been permitted to enter Tigray.
On Thursday, Dr Ghebreyesus tweeted “People in #Tigray #Ethiopia, living under de facto blockade for over a year, are dying from lack of medicine & food, & repeated drone attacks. @WHO & partners call for safe, unimpeded access to deliver humanitarian aid to the millions of people in great need.”-Reuters
