Ethiopia-Sentence To Hunger

Sentenced to Hunger

ETHIOPIA

Ethiopia ordered the expulsion of seven senior United Nations officials over accusations of “meddling in internal affairs” amid a worsening famine in the country’s war-torn Tigray region, the Guardian reported.

The government said the individuals which include staff from the UN human rights office and the children’s agency, UNICEF, have to leave the country within 72 hours.

The decision came following warnings from UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths over Ethiopia’s blockade of aid in the northern Tigray region, causing widespread famine affecting hundreds of thousands of people. Griffiths said that children have been dying of hunger and medicine stocks have been running out.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the expulsion and said the UN staff in Ethiopia was “delivering lifesaving aid… to people in desperate need.”

In recent months, the international community has criticized Ethiopia’s handling of the situation in the Tigray region. Since November, the federal government has been engaged in a bloody conflict with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). Thousands have died.

The Ethiopian government has halted food, medicine and fuel deliveries from entering Tigray in an effort to block support for the TPLF.

However, the blockade, locusts swarms decimating crops and a potentially poor harvest risks worsening the situation in the region. Griffiths warned that child malnutrition is at its highest rate since the Somalia famine of 2010-2012, which killed up to 260,000 people.

Meanwhile, the United States criticized the Ethiopian government and urged the international community “to employ all appropriate tools to apply pressure on the government of Ethiopia and any other actors impeding humanitarian access.”