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UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres asks Ethiopia to provide evidence Seven UN staff members expelled Allegations of misconduct.
“It is my duty to defend the honor of the United Nations,” Guterres told reporters after a rare public exchange of the situation in the country at the end of the Security Council meeting on Wednesday.
The Ethiopian government expelled seven senior UN officials-most of whom were humanitarian agencies of the world agency-last week for “interference” in internal affairs. Selassie further elaborated on this in the 15-member council, accusing UN staff of standing aside during the war in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia and exaggerating the severity of the humanitarian crisis.
He accused these officials of fabricating data, falsely claiming that hunger was used as a weapon of war and that people died of hunger, and accused them of supporting the Tigray army fighting the government.
“In their own words, they want to create a situation similar to Darfur,” Selassie said. “They caused 1 million victims of health disasters suddenly and overnight,” he added.
“Ethiopia is deeply dissatisfied with this experience,” the ambassador continued, adding that the government had written to the United Nations regarding staff behavior in July.
Guterres then took an unusual step, demanding the right to reply. In his response to the Security Council, the Secretary-General of the United Nations stated that he had not seen any information on these allegations provided by Ethiopia and requested documents to prove the new allegations.
“We believe that Ethiopia violated international law by doing so,” Guterres said. “If the Ethiopian government believes that any member of the United Nations has not acted completely impartially and completely independently in accordance with the provisions of humanitarian law, we are ready to cooperate with the Ethiopian government at any time.”
Guterres also said that he twice told Ethiopian Prime Minister Abi Ahmed that if there is any concern about the impartiality of UN staff, the government should share information so that the UN can investigate.
“Twice, I asked… the prime minister. So far, I have not responded to these requests,” Guterres said. “The people of Ethiopia are suffering. We have no interest other than helping to stop this suffering.”
US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas Greenfield described Ethiopia’s expulsion of UN officials as “reckless” and added: “There is no reason for the actions of the Ethiopian government, no reason at all.”
“The United Nations is fair. The United Nations is neutral,” she told the council. “United Nations personnel prohibited from entering Ethiopia must be allowed to return immediately.”
Eleven months ago, a war broke out between the Ethiopian Federal Army and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) forces loyal to the control of Tigray. Thousands of people died, millions of people fled their homes, and the conflict spread to neighboring Amhara and Afar regions.
Guterres stated earlier in the Security Council that as many as 7 million people in Tigray, Amhara and Afar need help, of which 5 million in Tigray need help. It is estimated that about 400,000 people live there. Under conditions similar to famine.
Guterres said: “Our local colleagues are sharing increasingly shocking testimonies of suffering, including more and more deaths related to hunger.” He described the humanitarian crisis as “a huge “.
“Where screening is possible, we see severe malnutrition rates that remind us of the beginning of the Somalia famine in 2011,” he said.
He called on the government to allow “unhindered” emergency delivery of aid supplies and allow “unrestricted delivery of much-needed fuel, cash, communications equipment and humanitarian supplies” to Tigray, Amhara and Afar.
“Ethiopian children are starving. People are dying because they cannot get food, water and basic medical care. This is not a situation caused by natural disasters. This is caused by those who continue to choose the course of war,” Ireland’s UN Ambassador Jella Erding Berne Nathan told the Council.
Al Jazeera’s James Bess reported from the United Nations Headquarters in New York that Guterres “made it clear that he believes that a humanitarian disaster is taking place in Ethiopia and that urgent international action is needed. However, the Security Council still has differences.”
Permanent members Russia and China have made it clear that they believe that the Tigray conflict is Ethiopia’s internal affair, so the Security Council is unlikely to take any strong actions, such as sanctions.
On Wednesday, China’s ambassador to the United Nations Zhang Jun called for “quiet diplomacy to prevent a deadlock” on the expulsion of United Nations officials.
On Friday, due to opposition from China and Russia, the Security Council could not agree on a statement made by Ireland.
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