Ethiopian government ordered the expulsion of seven senior United Nations personnel as it faced mounting pressure to end a blockade of the embattled Tigray region and aid agencies warned of impending famine.

The order came just two days after U.N. aid chief Martin Griffiths blamed the worsening humanitarian crisis in Tigray on Ethiopia’s government and urged it to step up aid deliveries to the region.

“This is man-made, this can be remedied by the act of government,” Griffiths said in an interview with Reuters this week. In the last three months, just 10 percent of the aid supplies needed for Tigray have reached the area, he said.

“The lack of food will mean that people will start to die,” Griffiths said in a separate interview with the Associated Press.

On Thursday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that the U.S. government “condemns in the strongest possible terms” Ethiopia’s “unprecedented action” to expel U.N. leadership from the country.

“We’re deeply concerned that this action continues a pattern by the Ethiopian government of obstructing the delivery of food, medicine and other lifesaving supplies to those most in need,” she said, adding that President Biden was prepared to impose financial sanctions on those “prolonging the conflict in northern Ethiopia.”

“We call on the U.N. Security Council and members of the international community to take urgent action to make clear to the government of Ethiopia that impeding humanitarian operations and depriving your own citizens of the basic means of survival is unacceptable,” she said. 

On 4th October, Legesse Nigussu, a close ally of PM Abiy and a staff of the World Council of Churches posted the following on Twitter

"In defiance of external pressure, we Ethiopia|ns chose to chart our new path for #ETHnewBeginning �� . We move #ResilientlyOnwards as we set our great nation on a trajectory of peace, development, self-reliance. @USAmbUN @BBC" https://t.co/UH4zxw0aST

Clearly, this goes to show that the blockade is a deliberate act aimed at using FOOD AS AN ARBITRARY WEAPON of MASS DESTRUCTION indiscriminately against all the Tigrayan population whether innocent or not.

As the UNSC discerns how to deal with this rogue government, let is join hands and ask the Norwegian Nobel Committee to the Recall the Nobel Peace Prize it awarded to PM Abiy. Let us also join hands and ask all African based Nobel Peace Prize Laureates to call out PM Abiy and disassociate with him, and support this RECALL!