NEW YORK, (Reuters) – The United Nations does not accept Ethiopia’s decision to expel seven senior U.N. officials as famine looms in the war-torn region of Tigray, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed yesterday.
Ethiopia declared the officials personae non grata on Thursday and gave them 72 hours to leave, but U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq said that doctrine cannot be applied to staff of the world body. Haq said the officials remained in the country.
In a note to Ethiopia’s mission to the United Nations in New York, seen by Reuters, the U.N. Office of Legal Affairs said it had not received any information to back Ethiopia’s accusation that the officials were meddling in internal affairs.
Ethiopia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs later yesterday accused the U.N. officials of diverting aid and communication equipment to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), violating security arrangements, failing to demand the return of aid trucks deployed to Tigray, and spreading misinformation.
War broke out 11 months ago between Ethiopia’s federal troops and forces loyal to the TPLF, which controls Tigray. Thousands have died and more than 2 million people have been forced to flee their homes.
