(Source: Devex) –
Russia and China helped Ethiopia to “delay” meetings of the United Nations Security Council to discuss the declaration of famine in Tigray, according to Mark Lowcock, the former under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator.
“Effective diplomatic maneuvers in New York” by Russia and China meant “the Ethiopians were quite successful in staving off open meetings in the Security Council for months and months and months,” he told Devex in an interview. Famine still has not been officially declared in northern Ethiopia, though nearly half a million children are estimated to be malnourished in Tigray.
If there had been Security Council meetings on famine in Tigray sooner, “it would have focused higher-level attention on the problem earlier and added to the political pressure on the Ethiopians to allow more aid in,” according to Lowcock.