World health Organizations’ Tedros says there is a small gap to ‘prevent genocide’ in Ethiopia.

NAIROBI, October 19 – Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the WHO, said on Wednesday that there was an “extremely small gap now to avoid genocide” in his home area of Tigray in the north of Ethiopia.

Tedros, who previously worked as Ethiopia’s health as well as foreign ministers, has been harshly critical of Ethiopian leadership all through the two-year conflict.

In turn, the administration has accused him of attempting to obtain arms as well as diplomatic support for rebel forces, which he has denied.

Tedros told journalists in Geneva that food as well as healthcare were being employed as weapons of warfare in Tigray, which is primarily cut off from the rest of the world.

“There is no other circumstance in the world where six million people have been held hostage for nearly two years,” Tedros said. “There is now an extremely narrow window of opportunity to prevent genocide.”

Legesse Tulu, the Ethiopian govt’s spokesperson, Redwan Hussein, the prime minister’s national security advisor, and Billene Seyoum, the prime minister’s spokesperson, were unable to respond to requests for information.

The Ethiopian government denies blocking humanitarian assistance to Tigray and targeting civilians on numerous occasions.

Thousands have been killed, millions have been displaced, as well as hundreds of thousands are on the verge of starvation as a result of the conflict.

This week, Ethiopian forces and their allies captured several towns in Tigray, amid fears that the approaching soldiers will commit atrocities against civilians.

Last year, a joint probe by the UN and Ethiopia’s state-appointed commission on human rights identified that all sides battling in the Tigray war committed offences that could be considered acts of war.

This week, Ethiopia’s government has indicated that its forces adhere to human rights.

The Tigray conflict stems from long-standing rivalries between regional power blocs for control of Ethiopia as a whole, as well as deep squabbles over how power should be distributed among federal and provincial authorities.

Tedros has previously been accused by Ethiopian authorities of supporting Tigrayan forces without providing evidence. “Yes, I’m from Tigray, & yes, this matters to me. I’m not going to claim it doesn’t “Tedros stated this on Wednesday.

“I have several relatives in a number of the hardest hit areas. And yet my job is to attract global attention to crises that endanger people’s health wherever they may be.”