Ethiopian government hits back at pro-TPLF supporter/WHO chief over Tigray remarks

The Ethiopian government through its ministry of foreign affairs has lashed out at pro Tigray People’s Liberation Forces supporter and World Health Organisation Chief Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus over a recent statement on the Tigray war, which undermines the painstaking efforts put by Premier Abiy Ahmed to arrest the war in Tigray.

The Foreign Minister said in a statement: "He has spread harmful misinformation and compromised WHO's reputation, independence, credibility which is evident from his social media postings." "He has been interfering in the internal affairs of Ethiopia, including Ethiopia's relations with the state of Eritrea," it reiterated. The reaction from the Ethiopian government follows a stern remark from Tedros, a one-time Minister of Health under then Prime Meles Zenawi, a Tigrayan. Tedros on Wednesday January 12, 2022 via a media conference said "Nowhere in the world are we witnessing a hell as in Tigray.” Tedros accused the government of deliberately withholding food and medicine from millions of people in the Tigray region. The recent remark from Tedros is just one of such stern and demeaning statements from the WHO head ever since the east African state of Ethiopia fell under the attack of the western backed Tigrayan forces. Taking a retrospect of events that unfolded since the war broke out in Tigray in 2020, Dr. Tedros Ahanom Ghebreyesus has been very critical of how the Ethiopian government is handling the Tigray crisis, failing to see the efforts of PM Abiy Ahmed to solve the war. It clearly proves that the high ranking Tigrayan official has thrown his support behind the Tigray forces, whose activities have largely undermined the peace and stability that had prevailed in Tigray, elsewhere in Ethiopia and neighboring states since the Nobel Peace Prize winner Abiy Ahmed took over as prime minister in 2018. Since Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed confronted the Tigrayan forces at the war front, relative calm has returned. The Tigrayan forces in December withdrew from neighbouring Afar and Amhara regions back into Tigray. The reformist leader had vowed not to let his country slide into the hands of detractors who want to destabilize it for their selfish gains. During his first years as Premier, Abiy Ahmed decried that conquest and Militarism risk tearing Africa apart, urging leaders to be steadfast and watchful for the geopolitical game playing around the continent could instead bring further division.