The Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has called for humanitarian access into Tigray, Ethiopia.

According to Ghebreyesus, the WHO has not been permitted to deliver medical and humanitarian supplies to the conflict-hit region for more than a year.

It is understood that the blockade has deprived seven million people in Tigray of urgently needed humanitarian care and access to aid.

‘For more than a year, a de facto blockade has deprived seven million people in [Tigray] of urgently needed health care [and] access to food [and] people are dying’, the WHO chief tweeted.

‘We call on [Ethiopia] [and] [Eritrea] to guarantee immediate, safe access [and] work for peace. Life is precious – everywhere’.

Data from WHO shows that the global health body was able to dispatch 14 metric tonnes of medical supplies to Afar region and 70 metric tonnes to Amhara in December 2021 but has continually been denied access to Tigray.

Human Rights Watch (HRW), in a 2021 report, revealed that survivors of abuse were not getting treatment within the critical 72-hour window needed to prevent pregnancy and HIV due to the government’s obstruction of humanitarian assistance in Tigray.

More than 2.1 million people have been displaced due to fighting between Ethiopian troops and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).

The fighting started after the TPLF attacked a key Ethiopian military base in the region in November 2020.

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