WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says 'color of skin' behind lack of help for Tigray

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who is himself of ethnic Tigrayan descent, remarked during a press conference that the situation brought on by the violence in his native nation is worse than any humanitarian disaster in the world. The current catastrophe in Ethiopia's Tigray area has been called "the worst disaster on Earth," and the president of the World Health Organization wondered aloud on Wednesday whether the lack of action by world leaders was because of "the colour of the people in Tigray."

According to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center, fighting between Ethiopian and Tigrayan forces has resulted in thousands of fatalities and hundreds of thousands of people experiencing extreme food poverty.

According to Tedros, the 6 million people of Tigray have been "under siege" for the past 21 months and are basically cut off from the rest of the world. He asserted that the situation in Tigray was much worse and that the Ukraine conflict had the potential to send the world "sleepwalking into a nuclear war," which would be "the mother of all crises."

The WHO requested $123.7 million to address the health issues brought on by the region's rising malnutrition, where 200 million people reside and millions go without food. 

The World Health Organization's director-claims general's that the crisis in Ethiopia's Tigray area is "the worst calamity on Earth" and that Tigrayans' lack of attention from world leaders may be related to their skin tone are being criticised by Ethiopia's government as being "unethical."

Little humanitarian help was delivered after Tigray forces retook much of the area in June 2021, nearly a year after the conflict in Ethiopia broke out in November 2020. Though aid has increased significantly in recent months, it is generally regarded as being insufficient to fulfil the needs of the millions of people who are virtually stuck there.

The officials of the Tigray region continue to place a high priority on the restoration of basic services and banking. Journalists are not permitted inside.

According to Tedros, the residents of Tigray are unable to go outside the area and lack access to healthcare and telecommunications. But in recent months, the International Committee of the Red Cross has noted supplies of some medicines. The head of the WHO declared that "nowhere in the world would you see this level of brutality," where a government punishes 6 million of its citizens for more than 21 months. The only question we have is, "Can the world awaken and uphold humanity?"

Tedros urged the governments of Ethiopia and Russia to resolve the conflicts in Tigray and Ukraine. I urge them both to find a solution to these problems if they desire peace, he said.

A government peace committee has approved a peace plan, according to Ethiopia's foreign ministry, and it will be given to the African Union envoy in charge of mediating a truce. The statement added that after a ceasefire, basic services would resume.

The WHO director has previously come out in support of Tigray. In a letter to the World Health Organization earlier this year, the Ethiopian government charged Tedros with "misconduct" for his harsh criticism of the conflict and humanitarian disaster there.

Tedros served as Ethiopia's foreign minister and health minister while the Tigray People's Liberation Front was the majority party in the country's ruling coalition. The Ethiopian government claimed that Tedros was using his position "to advance his political interest at the expense of Ethiopia" and claimed that he is still a current member of the TPLF.