Ethiopia\u2019s foreign ministry has called on the World Health Organization (WHO) to investigate its leader for supporting rebellious forces fighting the Ethiopian government.<\/p>\n
WHO director-general 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cTedros Adhanom\u2019s moral, legal and professional standing that threatened WHO\u2019s organisational standing,\u201d Ethiopia said in a statement late on Thursday. \u201cHe has spread harmful misinformation and compromised WHO\u2019s reputation, independence, credibility which is evident from his social media postings.\u201d<\/p>\n
The WHO said in an emailed response to Reuters request for comment that it was aware that Ethiopia\u2019s foreign affairs ministry had sent a diplomatic communication, called a note verbale.<\/p>\n
It said the WHO \u201cwill continue to ask the Ethiopian government to allow access to deliver humanitarian supplies and services to the 7 million people in Tigray, Ethiopia\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
The \u201cWHO and partners have been repeatedly calling for urgent and unimpeded access to deliver humanitarian heath supplies and services to the people in Tigray.\u201d<\/p>\n
The government has denied blocking aid and has accused the rebellious forces of the Tigray People\u2019s Liberation Front (TPLF) of requisitioning trucks sent in previously.<\/p>\n
Ethiopia\u2019s army chief has previously accused Tedros of trying to procure arms and diplomatic backing for the TPLF. He denied that. read more<\/p>\n
Thousands have been killed in the conflict in Tigray, which spread to two neighbouring regions in northern Ethiopia before Tigrayan forces were forced to withdraw back to Tigray in December.<\/p>\n
The United Nations says the government is operating a de facto blockade of humanitarian aid to Tigray; no trucks have entered the region since Dec. 15. More than 90% of the population needs food aid and doctors told Reuters last week that many people \u2013 including malnourished children \u2013 are dying because no medicine has been permitted to enter Tigray.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, Tedros tweeted \u201cPeople 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
The WHO said that its main call and that of the international community was to get access to those affected and for all parties to use political action to achieve peace and security.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is true for Tigray and elsewhere in northern Ethiopia,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
Ethiopia\u2019s foreign ministry said Tedros failed to show integrity and professionalism and was a member of the TPLF, which dominated Ethiopian politics for nearly 30 years before Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed\u2019s appointment in 2018.<\/p>\n
\u201cTedros encourages the TPLF in his media engagements and celebrates what is presumed to be a military success of the group, besides engaging in selective outrage where he discriminately addresses the humanitarian concerns in Ethiopia,\u201d the ministry said.<\/p>\n
The government designated TPLF a terrorist group after the war erupted in November 2020. Tedros, a Tigrayan, was a member of the TPLF. Abiy also served as an intelligence chief under the previous TPLF-led government.<\/p>\n
Tedros was elected the WHO\u2019s first African director-general in May 2017 with strong Ethiopian and African support. He ran again as the sole nominee in October. Ethiopia withheld its support and 28 other countries appointed Tedros for a second five-year term.<\/p>\n
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Ethiopia\u2019s foreign ministry has called on the World Health Organization (WHO) to investigate its leader for supporting rebellious forces fighting the Ethiopian government. WHO director-general 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1788,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":2,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"0","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":""},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":""},"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,33,34],"tags":[114,235,44,236,237,62],"class_list":["post-1786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-east-africa","category-politics","category-society","tag-ethiopia","tag-tedros-adhanom-ghebreyesus","tag-tigray-peoples-liberation-front-tplf","tag-who","tag-who-director-general","tag-world-health-organization"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1786\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}