WHO chief: I cannot reach ‘starving’ Tigray relatives amid government blockade

The director-general of the World Health Organisation has made a passionate appeal for his embattled home region of Tigray in Ethiopia, saying he has relatives he cannot communicate with or send money to amid a blockade by government forces (Alamy/PA)

The director-general of the World Health Organisation says he cannot send money to his “starving” relatives in Ethiopia’s Tigray region amid a blockade by government forces.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in some of his most personal comments about the region that erupted in violence again on Wednesday after months of calm, lamented his inability to help loved ones among the six million people all but trapped in Tigray.