US Envoy To UN Calls For Open Meeting On Humanitarian Situation In Ethiopia's Tigray

US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield on Thursday called on the UN Security Council to convene an open meeting to discuss the dire humanitarian situation in Ethiopia's Tigray region

UNITED NATIONS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 10th June, 2021) US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield on Thursday called on the UN Security Council to convene an open meeting to discuss the dire humanitarian situation in Ethiopia's Tigray region.

"Despite the best efforts of many members of the Security Council - and sadly due to the impediments placed in front of us by some Council members - the Council still has not yet held a single - a single - public meeting," Thomas-Greenfield said at a US-UN high-level roundtable on Tigray. "It's time for the Security Council to have a public meeting on this issue."

Thomas-Greenfield said the crisis in Ethiopia is the "moment of truth" for the global community, and the UN's most powerful must take meaningful action to address the "humanitarian nightmare" there.

"Today, an estimated 90 percent of people in Tigray are now in desperate need of assistance. Hundreds of thousands more may be in famine conditions by September," she said.

The US diplomat further called on the Ethiopian government to provide humanitarian access, end the fighting and bring those accountable for human rights violations to justice.

Fighting in the province of Tigray broke out in November after the Ethiopian government accused the local ruling party - Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) - of attacking a regional military base to hijack weapons and arm the anti-government militia.