Ethiopia’s Permanent Mission in Geneva is requesting the United Nations to launch an impartial investigation into what Ethiopian officials have described as “misconduct” by the World Health Organization’s Director General (WHO).
The complaint was filed with WHO’s Executive Board on September 2, 2022.
Ethiopian officials said on Friday that they had filed a complaint against Tedros Adhanom, director general of WHO, accusing him of colluding with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).
Tedros is exploiting his position of power for his personal benefit at the expense of Ethiopia’s interests, according to the Ethiopian government.
A former TPLF high-ranking official, Tedros, has been accused of supporting Tigray rebels and lobbying Western governments to support the TPLF since the commencement of the northern Ethiopian conflict in November 2020. The government also accused the director general of attempting to supply the TPLF with arms.
Tedros stated that his relatives in Tigray are starving since the war between the federal government and the TPLF started for the third time on August 24, 2022.
“You have to stand for yourself. If you don’t, nobody else will,” Tedros tweeted. His remarks sparked fury on social media, with many users claiming that he is biased.
Despite tremendous outrage and protest from Ethiopians and allies of Ethiopia, Tedros was re-elected as WHO director in May 2022.
Officials highlighted the director’s grave misconduct against a member state and urged that his actions be halted and corrective steps taken against his wrongdoing without delay.
The mission denounced Tedros for spreading falsehoods against the government while serving as an active member of the TPLF’s command and control system and launching a propaganda campaign against the Ethiopian government.
“We will expose and oppose his callous behavior and wrongdoing through every available route,” it stated.
Ethiopia’s statement accused the director of supporting illegal TPLF activities, never exposing the TPLF’s destruction of schools, health centers, public institutions, and infrastructure in the Amhara and Afar regions, and standing by the TPLF’s actions regardless of what is mentioned in its statement.
The UN organization is being used as a platform to criticize the government with impunity, damaging its name, neutrality, integrity, and credibility under the pretense of humanitarian and fabricated family concerns, according the statement.
“We will not tolerate agencies and NGOs taking partisan views and advocating for TPLF,” Demeke Mekonen, deputy PM and minister of foreign affairs, told the diplomatic community based in Addis Ababa on Thursday.
The government requested that the Executive Board conduct an investigation and take corrective action for the director’s alleged gross breach of the WHO Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct and various requirements of the Standards of Conduct for International Civil Service.
