WHO chief calls for civilian protection after northern Ethiopia drone strikes

The head of the World Health Organization called on Monday for greater protection for civilians caught in conflict in northern Ethiopia after deadly weekend drone strikes, with the sharpest reported harm falling on a displacement camp in Amhara and a food line in Tigray.

Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on social media that reports of attacks on civilians in Ethiopia’s Amhara and Tigray regions are deeply disturbing. He said children, including a newborn, were among the fatalities at the Amhara camp. In a separate strike in the town of Rama in Tigray, several people were reportedly killed while trying to get food. UN News.

Tedros cast the weekend strikes as the latest in a wider pattern, saying drone attacks and civilian casualties have become frequent across Ethiopia. Violence in the north, he continued, is pushing an already fragile health system closer to collapse. Hospitals, he said, face shortages of health workers, medicines, and equipment; ambulance services are severely limited; and insecurity is blocking the delivery of life-saving medical supplies to some areas. WHO and partners are working to get more supplies into the affected regions, he said, and as fighting continues more people are likely to lose access to emergency care, maternal and child services, and treatment for disease.

Fresh fighting between Ethiopian government forces and rebel groups resumed in Amhara, Tigray, and Afar in September, nearly four years after a peace deal. UN Secretary-General António Guterres has warned of the risk of escalation and wider destabilization. Last Friday, he said he was appalled by recent attacks on civilians, including health facilities.

In a statement issued by his spokesperson, the Secretary-General called on the parties to spare the civilian population and critical infrastructure and to agree without delay to a cessation of hostilities as a first step toward ending the conflict. He renewed his urgent appeal for the parties to engage in good faith with mediation efforts.

The WHO account did not name who carried out the weekend strikes.