UN chief says Ethiopia has no right to expel UN staff

United Nations, Oct. 7, (Xinhua/GNA) – United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said Ethiopia has no right to expel UN staff and it is violating the international law in doing this.

Speaking at the Security Council meeting on Ethiopia, the top UN official said, “We believe that Ethiopia has no right to expel these members of the UN.”

“We believe Ethiopia is violating international law in doing so,” he added.

Guterres recalled that he “twice” told the Ethiopian prime minister that “if there were concerns about the lack of impartiality of UN staff; I asked him, please, send me those situations for me to investigate”.

The Secretary-General said “we are ready to cooperate with the government of Ethiopia in relation to any situation in which the government of Ethiopia feels that any member of the UN is not behaving as humanitarian law prescribes.”

“We have only one agenda in Ethiopia and that agenda is the people of Ethiopia – Tigrayans, Amharans, Afaris, Somalis, the people of Ethiopia.” “The people of Ethiopia are suffering. We have no other interest but to help stop that suffering,” he said.

GNA