Ethiopia orders deportation of Seven UN officials

The foreign ministry of Ethiopia has deported seven United Nations (UN) officials for interfering in the country’s affairs and ordered them to leave the country within 72 hours.

According to Reuters news agency, a UN official said that thousands of people in Ethiopia’s war-torn region of Tigray are at risk of starvation due to government measures. The State Department then accused seven officials, including the head of the UN Children’s Fund and the head of the Office of Humanitarian Affairs, of interfering in internal affairs and said they had 72 hours to leave the country.

The situation in Tigray has been dire since fighting broke out between the Ethiopian government and forces affiliated with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front about 10 months ago. Thousands have been killed and millions displaced in the conflict.

UN spokeswoman Stephanie Tremblay said the news of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ expulsion was a major blow.

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“We are trying to contact the Ethiopian government to allow those involved to continue their work in the country,” she said.

On Tuesday, UN relief chief Martin Griffiths slammed the government of Ethiopia, accusing it of deliberately withholding aid to the war-torn region.

“We predicted that 400,000 people in the war-torn region are at risk of famine and if they don’t get adequate aid, they will starve and can die,” Griffiths said, citing a UN analysis in June. “I think something like this is happening in Tigray,” she added.

On the other hand, the Ethiopian delegation to the UN has said that these claims of the UN are baseless and this aid is not reaching the region due to lack of trucks and fuel. Contrary to Ethiopia’s claim, the United Nations said the Tigray drivers had been shot twice and arrested in neighboring areas.

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It is worth noting that the Biden administration threatened earlier this month that it would impose new sanctions on government officials involved in prolonging the Tigray dispute.

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