The world “does not pay the same attention to the lives of black people as it does to white people,” World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday.
“All the attention paid to Ukraine is very important, of course, because it has an impact on the whole world, but not even a fraction (of that attention) is given to the tiger (the Ethiopian region from which it originates), to Yemen, Afghanistan, Syria and others,” he quoted the director general of the WHO during a press conference.
“I must be direct and honest: the world does not treat the human race in the same way,” said Tedros.
“And when I say that, it makes me sad (…) It is very difficult to accept, but it is what happens,” he insisted, hoping that “the world will return to reason and treat every human life in the same way.”
Tedros took advantage of the press conference to talk about the situation in his native region, where the authorities are in conflict with government forces.
Specifically, fears that the humanitarian truce decreed on March 24 by the government of Addis Ababa to allow humanitarian aid to enter Tigray be “a diplomatic maneuver”.
Where 2,000 aid trucks should have arrived by now“only 20 arrived in total, which represents 1% of the needs,” denounced the head of the WHO.
According to Tedros, the fact that aid access to the region is not completely free can still cause thousands of deaths.
The conflict, which began in November 2020 and has spread beyond Tigray, has left thousands dead and millions hungry. Both sides have been accused of perpetrating atrocities.
“What is happening in Ethiopia is tragic, people are being burned alive just because of their ethnicity and I am not sure this has been taken seriously in the media,” the director general stressed.
“We need a balance. We have to take every life seriously because every life is precious,” he added.
