WHO boss: Tigrayans subjected to torture and blockade in Ethiopia

Tigray refugees who fled the conflict in the Ethiopia's Tigray ride a bus going to the Village 8 temporary shelter, near the Sudan-Ethiopia border, in Hamdayet, eastern Sudan, Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2020. | AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty

NAIROBI, Kenya - Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed could face yet another backlash over his attitude towards the people of Tigray, despite efforts to end a 19-month stalemate in the northern region which has left thousands of people dead and others displaced.

Verified reports from various human rights organizations and the United Nations indicate that thousands of people have been killed in various towns across Tigray with millions of others getting displaced from their various homes.

And in a Tweet, World Health Organization [WHO] Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom who hails from Ethiopia said at least six million Tigrayans have been subjected to the blockade, with authorities in Ethiopia denying them access to basic human rights needs.

Further, he added, thousands of people including women and children have been detained in concentration camps just because they hail from Tigray, a region that is at loggerheads with authorities in Addis Ababa. He demanded an immediate end to the suffering.

"Six million+ people in Tigray have been sealed off and thousands of Tigrayans who live in the rest of Ethiopia, including children and women, have been detained inhumanely in concentration camps because of their identity," said the Director-General.

"This must stop. Humanitarian aid must be allowed in immediately," Tedros Adhanom added in what could potentially destabilize the ongoing efforts to reconcile Tigray People's Liberation Front [TPLF] and the government of Ethiopia.

Last week, reports indicated that the government of Ethiopia had appointed a committee that should lay the foundation for the dialogue between TPLF and the Ethiopian government, a move that was vehemently opposed by the Tigray rebels.

The rebels, reports further showed, want a dialogue in which outgoing Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta will be the chief mediator. The group accuses African Union of being partisan in the efforts to end the impasse which has exposed the lives of millions of people.

In 2020 November, the attack launched by TPLF on the Ethiopian National Defense Forces [ENDF] Northern Command triggered the war, after the two parties fell out over the contemporary politics of the country. Abiy Ahmed has been blamed for failing to respect the ceasefire.

GAROWE ONLINE