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The official from the World Health Organization said that the conflict-affected Tigray region of Ethiopia is facing a frightening situation. People are dying of hunger, medical services are destroyed, and rape is “rampant”.
“If I use only one word, the situation in Ethiopia’s Tigri is shocking. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference on Monday .
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed accused the once dominant regional ruling party of planning an attack on the federal barracks and sent troops into Tigray in November.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner Abiy declared victory when the army entered the regional capital Mekelle that month.
But the fighting continued, and the six-month conflict triggered allegations of massacres and rapes by Ethiopian forces and neighbouring Eritrea forces.
Tedros pointed out that there are currently about 5 million people in the region in need of humanitarian assistance, especially food assistance.
He said: “In fact, due to starvation, many people have already begun to die, and severe and severe malnutrition is rampant.”
In addition, hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced, including more than 60,000 who fled Sudan.
He said that at the same time, health services were looted and destroyed, adding that “most of them were not functioning properly”.
Assistance visit
The head of the WHO also condemned the widespread use of indiscriminate killings and sexual violence in conflicts.
“Rape is rampant. In fact, I don’t think any other place in the world has this scale.”
When asked about the COVID-19 situation in his hometown, Tedros said there are no services to control the disease, but given other crises, this is not a priority.
“Frankly speaking, in most cases, we can’t even discuss issues related to COVID, because there are more pressing issues.”
One of the most pressing issues to be solved is to make the full use of humanitarian workers and aid.
Due to growing concerns about the imminent disaster, world leaders and aid agencies have repeatedly called for humanitarian access to the crisis-affected area.
Last Friday, the European Union condemned the continued blocking of aid to the region and the “use of humanitarian aid as a weapon of war”.
The WHO Director of Emergency Affairs, Michael Ryan, warned on Monday that “the passage of victims in Tigray remains highly unpredictable”.
He said that this is “providing a huge obstacle to people who need our help.”
Outbreak risk
He said that due to the destruction of most medical institutions, the UN health agency is concerned that the risk of outbreaks of cholera, measles and other diseases is increasing.
He pointed out: “We still have the problem of continuing to vaccinate (cholera) vaccines,” he emphasized the need to “vaccinate these vaccines there”, and plans to carry out immunization campaigns to “avoid the cholera disaster.”
The Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday lifted concerns about getting aid.
The Ministry of National Defense said in a statement: “Due to security issues, access to certain pocket areas does have difficulties, but it has now been resolved.”
“That’s why despite the actual local conditions, some partners still regret that they continue to regret the lack of access.”
The statement also said that the government is committed to investigating human rights violations and condemned “unjust and baseless accusations against Ethiopia” without mentioning Tedros.
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