WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus Warns of Healthcare Collapse in Northern Ethiopia Amid Scrutiny Over TPLF Ties
Recent military strikes across northern Ethiopia have reportedly killed civilians, including children and a newborn, pushing the region’s strained medical network closer to a total breakdown, the head of the World Health Organization warned on Monday.
The deteriorating situation comes as renewed hostilities threaten to unravel the November 2022 cessation of hostilities agreement signed between the federal government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front. With clashes expanding across multiple regional states, humanitarian officials fear northern Ethiopia is sliding back into broader conflict.
In a statement published on social media platform X, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said children were among those killed in an attack at the Jaari 2 displacement camp in the Amhara region. In neighboring Tigray, several people were reported killed in the border town of Rama while attempting to access humanitarian food distributions, Tedros said.
Tedros did not assign responsibility for the strikes or provide an exact casualty count, though he noted that drone operations and civilian fatalities have grown increasingly common. Hospitals throughout northern Ethiopia continue to operate under severe distress, depleted of essential medicines, equipment, and medical personnel, while ambulance operations face acute disruptions and roads remain insecure for medical transport.
“Civilians must be protected. Health workers and humanitarian supplies must be allowed to reach those in need,” Tedros said.
United Nations agencies are working to route emergency supplies to the affected areas amid mounting logistical bottlenecks and checkpoint closures.
Expanding Conflict Across Amhara and Oromia
The reported strikes coincide with an escalation of armed confrontation beyond Tigray. Federal forces have engaged in persistent clashes in Amhara since 2023 with Fano, an ethnic Amhara militia network that previously fought alongside federal troops during the two-year northern war.
In the Oromia region, deadly violence has also flared. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church reported that dozens of civilians were killed in targeted assaults in the Arsi zone, drawing international concern. U.S. Ambassador to Ethiopia Ervin J. Massinga called for an independent inquiry into the killings.
“Such horrific attacks against any group must stop,” Massinga said in a diplomatic statement.
Political Friction and Opposition Alignments
The warnings from the WHO chief have renewed domestic political debates. Tedros, who served as Ethiopia’s foreign minister and health minister under the former EPRDF administration, has previously faced criticism from federal officials over perceived bias. Federal authorities have previously accused him of using his multilateral office to advance regional interests—an allegation Tedros has rejected, maintaining that his statements focus strictly on civilian protection and medical neutrality.
Meanwhile, the federal government has projected an posture of operational readiness. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed shared images of senior administration officials participating in physical and military readiness exercises at Hurso in eastern Ethiopia, describing the program as an effort to build discipline and institutional leadership capacity.
Concurrently, disparate insurgent and opposition movements have sought to coordinate efforts against the federal government. The Ethiopian Peoples’ Forces Alliance for Survival—a coalition formed to coordinate political and armed opposition—announced that it had adopted initiatives aimed at aligning operational and diplomatic efforts against the ruling Prosperity Party.
Federal authorities have not issued a formal public response to the reported strikes in Rama and Jaari 2, nor to the WHO’s latest warnings. Humanitarian agencies continue to stress that medical facilities in northern Ethiopia cannot sustain emergency operations without guaranteed humanitarian access and a cessation of strikes.
Picture: ABC News – International
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