Ethiopia is facing world's worst health crisis, WHO chief

As much of the world’s attention is focused on Ukraine, the head of the World Health Organisation said Wednesday there’s “nowhere on earth where the health of millions of people is more under threat” than Ethiopia’s Tigray region.

WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the situation in Tigray from where he hails was “catastrophic,” saying the region had been “sealed off from the outside world” for about 500 days.

“No food aid has been delivered since the middle of December,” Tedros told a press briefing, adding that about three quarters of health facilities assessed by WHO in the region had been destroyed. He said there was no treatment for about 40,000 people with HIV in the region.

“Yes, I’m from Tigray and this crisis affects me, my family and my friends very personally,” Tedros said. “But I, the director general of WHO, I have a duty to protect and promote health wherever it’s under threat,” he said.

“And there is nowhere on earth where the health of millions of people is more under threat than Tigray.”