Ethiopia: WHO Boss Denies TPLF Link as Tigray Boils

By Development Diaries
November 23, 2020

World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General, Tedros Ghebreyesus, who is Ethiopia’s highest-profile Tigrayan abroad, has denied claims he supports Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).

Violence involving federal and local forces erupted in Tigray following the reported takeover of an army base in the Tigrayan capital, Mekelle.

On 4 November, 2020, the country’s Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, ordered the Ethiopian Defence Forces (EDF) to attack the Tigray Regional Paramilitary Police and militia loyal to the TPLF.

Since the start of the conflict, there have been armed confrontations between federal forces on one side and the Tigray regional forces on the other side.

Development Diaries gathered that Ethiopia’s army chief, Berhanu Jula, accused the WHO boss of lobbying in favour of the dissident region and helping them get weapons.

‘He has worked in neighbouring countries to condemn the war. He has worked for them to get weapons’, Jula reportedly claimed.

But Ghebreyesus, in his response on Twitter, said, ‘My heart breaks for my home, Ethiopia, and I call on all parties to work for peace and to ensure the safety of civilians and access for health and humanitarian assistance to those in need.

‘I am deeply saddened about reports of casualties and large numbers of people being displaced and seeking refuge in neighbouring countries. In the midst of a global pandemic, I am further concerned about the impact on health.

‘As a child, I have seen the destructive nature of war. I recall vividly the fighting and the terrible human toll.

‘As an adult, I have used that first-hand experience to always work for peace, to bring warring parties together, and to start a dialogue to broker peace’.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) had said that it was impossible for humanitarians to get vital supplies into Ethiopia’s Tigray region due to the disruption of telephone lines and transport links.

There are some 600,000 food beneficiaries in the region, about 100,000 internally displaced persons, and some 96,000 refugees, according to UNOCHA.

‘With the road closed, food, health, and other emergency supplies have currently no way to make it into Tigray making prepositioning or re-stocking impossible’, it said in a statement.

‘Telephone lines remain cut making information flow and corroboration of media reports very difficult for the humanitarian community, as well as to monitor population movement and additional humanitarian needs’.

Source: Nation Group