The World Treats Crises Differently Depending on Race, WHO Director-General says
Referencing the Tigray crisis in Ethiopia and the war in Ukraine, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of World Health Organisation, says the world ‘is not treating the human race the same way’.
The world is treating humanitarian crises affecting Black and white lives unequally, with only a “fraction” of the attention on Ukraine given elsewhere, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) says.
Humanitarian crises are not being given equal consideration, possibly because those suffering are not white, said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
He questioned whether “the world really gives equal attention to Black and white lives” – given that the ongoing emergencies in Ethiopia, Yemen, Afghanistan and Syria have garnered only a “fraction” of the global concern for Ukraine.
Tedros acknowledged the war in Ukraine is globally significant, but asked if other crises are being accorded enough attention.
“I need to be blunt and honest that the world is not treating the human race the same way,” he said. “Some are more equal than others. And when I say this, it pains me. Because I see it. Very difficult to accept – but it’s happening.”
Last month, Tedros noted there is “nowhere on Earth where the health of millions of people is more under threat” than Ethiopia’s Tigray region.
Read Also: The World’s Deadliest War Isn’t in Ukraine, but in Ethiopia
Tedros, who is from Tigray, said since a truce was declared in the besieged northern region of Ethiopia three weeks ago, about 2,000 trucks should have been able to enter with food, medicine and other essentials.
Instead, only about 20 trucks have arrived, said Tedros, a former minister of health in Ethiopia.
“As we speak, people are dying of starvation,” he said. “This is one of the longest and worst sieges by both Eritrean and Ethiopian forces in modern history.”
Tedros described the situation in Tigray as “tragic” and said he “hopes the world comes back to its senses and treats all human life equally”.
He also critiqued the media for what he said is its failure to document the ongoing atrocities in Ethiopia, noting that people had been burned alive in the region. “I don’t even know if that was taken seriously by the media because of their ethnicity,” he said. “So we need to balance. We need to take every life seriously because every life is precious.”
The United Nations says hundreds of thousands of people are at risk of starvation in Tigray, where people have for months also faced fuel shortages and a lack of basic services such as electricity, telecommunications, internet access and banking capability.
Across northern Ethiopia, the 17-month conflict has driven more than two million people from their homes, according to the UN, and left more than nine million people in need of food aid.
Source: Aljazeera | SBC News
Abeeb Lekan Sodiq is a Managing Editor & Writer at theafricandream.net. He is as well a Graphics Designer and also known as Arakunrin Lekan.
