ADDIS ABABA: Ethiopia said on Thursday it would expel seven senior UN officials for “meddling” in its affairs, ratcheting up worries over the humanitarian response in the war-torn and famine-threatened Tigray region.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he was “shocked” by the decision, expressed full confidence in his staff in Ethiopia and said the UN was engaging with the government “in the full expectation” that the affected officials would be allowed to return.

The expulsions, announced by the foreign ministry, came as Africa’s second most populous country held elections for dozens of federal parliamentary seats, the final round of voting before Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed forms a new government next week. The seven UN officials, including the local heads of the UN children’s agency UNICEF and its humanitarian coordination office, have been declared “persona non grata” for “meddling in the internal affairs of the country,” the ministry said in a statement published on its Facebook page.

“According to the letters addressed to each of the 7 individuals listed below, all of them must leave the territory of Ethiopia within the next 72 hours,” it said.

Ethiopia’s northernmost Tigray region has been mired in conflict since November, when Abiy sent troops to topple the regional ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), a move he said came in response to TPLF attacks on army camps. Fighting ground on for months before Tigrayan rebels retook the regional capital Mekele and government forces largely withdrew from the region.

Since then the TPLF has launched offensives into neighbouring Amhara and Afar regions, while Tigray itself is receiving only about 10 percent of the aid it needs.

Published in Dawn, October 1st, 2021