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Ethiopia says WHO chief has links to rebellious Tigrayan forces

Ethiopia’s foreign ministry asks WHO to investigate Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus for supporting rebellious forces

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Ethiopia’s foreign ministry has called on the World Health Organisation (WHO) to investigate its leader for supporting rebellious forces fighting the Ethiopian government.

WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who previously served as the Ethiopian health minister and foreign minister, said earlier this week that aid was being blocked from getting through to his home region of Tigray, where rebellious forces are fighting the central government.

“Tedros Adhanom’s moral, legal and professional standing that threatened WHO’s organisational standing,” Ethiopia said in a statement late on Thursday. “He has spread harmful misinformation and compromised WHO’s reputation, independence, credibility which is evident from his social media postings.”

The WHO said in an emailed response to Reuters request for comment that it was aware that Ethiopia’s foreign affairs ministry had sent a diplomatic communication, called a note verbale.

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It said the WHO “will continue to ask the Ethiopian government to allow access to deliver humanitarian supplies and services to the 7 million people in Tigray, Ethiopia...”

The “WHO and partners have been repeatedly calling for urgent and unimpeded access to deliver humanitarian heath supplies and services to the people in Tigray”.

The government has denied blocking aid and has accused the rebellious forces of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) of requisitioning trucks sent in previously.

Ethiopia’s army chief has previously accused Tedros of trying to procure arms and diplomatic backing for the TPLF. He denied that.

Thousands have been killed in the conflict in Tigray, which spread to two neighbouring regions in northern Ethiopia before Tigrayan forces were forced to withdraw back to Tigray in December.

The United Nations says the government is operating a de facto blockade of humanitarian aid to Tigray; no trucks have entered the region since December 15. More than 90 per cent of the population needs food aid and doctors told Reuters last week that many people — including malnourished children — are dying because no medicine has been permitted to enter Tigray.

On Thursday, Tedros tweeted “People in #Tigray #Ethiopia, living under de facto blockade for over a year, are dying from lack of medicine & food, & repeated drone attacks. @WHO & partners call for safe, unimpeded access to deliver humanitarian aid to the millions of people in great need.”

The WHO said that its main call and that of the international community was to get access to those affected and for all parties to use political action to achieve peace and security.

“This is true for Tigray and elsewhere in northern Ethiopia,” it said.

Ethiopia’s foreign ministry said Tedros failed to show integrity and professionalism and was a member of the TPLF, which dominated Ethiopian politics for nearly 30 years before Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s appointment in 2018.

“Tedros encourages the TPLF in his media engagements and celebrates what is presumed to be a military success of the group, besides engaging in selective outrage where he discriminately addresses the humanitarian concerns in Ethiopia,” the ministry said.

The government designated TPLF a terrorist group after the war erupted in November 2020. Tedros, a Tigrayan, was a member of the TPLF. Abiy also served as an intelligence chief under the previous TPLF-led government.

Tedros was elected the WHO’s first African director general in May 2017 with strong Ethiopian and African support. He ran again as the sole nominee in October. Ethiopia withheld its support and 28 other countries appointed Tedros for a second five-year term.

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