Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has urged dialogue as fresh clashes in Tigray threaten the fragile 2022 agreement that ended a two-year war
Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region is on the brink of renewed war as violence continues across several other parts of the country, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said.
Tigray was devastated by a war between federal forces and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) from 2020 until a peace agreement was signed in 2022. The conflict killed about 600,000 people and displaced millions, according to Olusegun Obasanjo, the African Union’s lead mediator in the peace negotiations.
In a statement on Sunday, Tedros said three years of armed conflict in the northern Amhara region has cost “countless lives,” while the sprawling Oromia region surrounding the capital Addis Ababa continues to “bleed.” He added that the northern Afar region has been drawn into the unrest and Benishangul-Gumuz remains gripped by violence.
“War only brings death, destruction, displacement, and deprivation. Ethiopians deserve better,” Tedros wrote on X. He urged the federal government and all regional leaders “to choose dialogue over guns, and to pursue real political solutions.”
For three years, armed conflict in Amhara has cost countless lives. Oromia continues to bleed. Tigray teeters back into open fighting, Afar has been drawn in, and Benishangul-Gumuz remains gripped by violence too.
The WHO chief’s warning follows reports of fighting between the Ethiopian National Defense Force and Tigrayan forces near Shererina in western Tigray on August 1. The Tigray regional authorities accused federal troops of launching a ground and air offensive.
Hundreds of civilians and wounded fighters subsequently crossed the border into Sudan, according to media reports.
Ethiopian Irrigation and Lowlands Minister Abraham Belay accused the TPLF of “opening the war” near Shererina and “driving Tigray’s young people and children into a purposeless war they do not understand, causing them to fall like leaves.” He warned of worse consequences if the fighting doesn’t stop.
The fighting violates the African Union-mediated Pretoria Agreement, which ended large-scale hostilities in November 2022. The accord provided for the disarmament of Tigrayan forces, the restoration of federal authority and the withdrawal of foreign and non-federal troops. Its implementation has stalled amid disputes over disarmament, contested territories and the TPLF’s political status.
Tedros, a former Ethiopian health and foreign minister from Tigray, said in December 2022 that his uncle had been “murdered” along with more than 50 other villagers amid continuing violence following the peace agreement.
