[ad_1]
Human Rights Watch (HRW) published a report Friday in response to a decision by the Ethiopian federal government to to announce seven senior UN officials as “persona non grata”, which means they are not welcome in the country.
HRW noted that the announcement comes just days after the UN humanitarian aid chief warned Ethiopia’s Tigray region “would sink into famine” as more than five million people in the region depend on it. humanitarian aid.
The report also states that the Tigray region is not the only region in Ethiopia at risk. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs underlined in a report Friday that in recent weeks, humanitarian needs in Amhara and Afar regions have increased, with thousands displaced as the conflict in Tigray has spread. They reported that there is a rapidly increasing humanitarian need as the number of internally displaced people increases.
Even with UN assistance, the delivery of humanitarian supplies to the regions is severely limited and restricted due to conflict and insecurity.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres declared,
I was shocked by the information that the Government of Ethiopia has declared seven United Nations officials persona non grata, including senior United Nations humanitarian officials. . . all United Nations humanitarian operations are guided by the fundamental principles of humanity, impartiality, neutrality and independence. In Ethiopia, the United Nations is providing life-saving assistance – including food, medicine, water and sanitation supplies – to those in desperate need. I have full confidence in the United Nations personnel who are in Ethiopia to do this work.
Guterres noted that the UN is now engaging with the Ethiopian government in the hope that relevant UN personnel will be allowed to continue their work in the country.
[ad_2]
Source link