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The World Health Organisation director-general on Wednesday said that the situation in Tigray, Ethiopia, where he hails from, was “catastrophic" and that the region had been “sealed off from the outside world” for about 500 days.
While
most of the world's attention is focused on the slaughter in Ukraine, the World
Health Organization's director-general declared on Wednesday that "nowhere
on earth is the health of millions of people more at risk" than Ethiopia's
Tigray area.
Tedros
Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization,
described the situation in Tigray, where he is from, as
"catastrophic," claiming the region had been "shut off from the
outside world" for roughly 500 days.
"No
food aid has been supplied since the middle of December," Tedros said at a
news conference, adding that nearly three-quarters of the region's health
institutions had been damaged, according to WHO. He said that roughly 40,000
HIV-positive patients in the region were untreated.
“Yes,
I'm from Tigray and this crisis affects me, my family and my friends very
personally,” Tedros said.
“But
I, the director general of WHO, have a duty to protect and promote health
wherever it's under threat,” he said.
“And
there is nowhere on earth where the health of millions of people is more under
threat than in Tigray.”
Tedros
said the UN health agency had now documented 43 attacks on health care workers
and facilities in Ukraine since the Russian invasion began last month.
WHO
has now opened supply lines to many cities in Ukraine, but some access
challenges remain. The agency continued to call for attacks on health workers
and facilities to stop.
But
Tedros said the crisis in Ukraine was “far from the only crisis to which WHO is
responding,” citing ongoing problems in Yemen, Syria and Ethiopia.
Earlier
this year, the government of Ethiopia sent a letter to the World Health
Organization, accusing Tedros of “misconduct” after his sharp criticism of the
war and humanitarian crisis in the country.
Source:
AP
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