The situation in Ethiopia is spiraling out of control.
Violence and destruction have reached alarming levels.
The social fabric is being ripped apart.
Hostilities in the Tigray region of Ethiopia must end now – including the immediate withdrawal and disengagement of Eritrean armed forces from Ethiopia.
There is no military solution.
Civilians are paying a horrific price.
Indiscriminate attacks — including in residential areas — are killing more innocent people every day, damaging critical infrastructure and limiting access to vital services.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes since hostilities resumed in August, many of them for the second time.
We are also hearing disturbing accounts of sexual violence and other acts of brutality against women, children and men.
All parties must adhere to their obligations under international humanitarian law.
Civilians must be protected – and, so, too, humanitarian workers who are being attacked – and even killed — delivering lifesaving humanitarian aid.
The level of need is staggering.
Even before the resumption of hostilities, 13 million people required food and other support across Tigray, Amhara and Afar.
Deliveries of aid into Tigray have been suspended for more than seven weeks, and assistance to Amhara and Afar has also been disrupted.
All parties must allow and facilitate the rapid and unimpeded passage of humanitarian relief for all civilians in need.
The United Nations is ready to support the African Union in every possible way to end this nightmare for the Ethiopian people.
We need the urgent resumption of talks towards an effective, lasting political settlement.
The international community must rally together now for peace in Ethiopia.
Thank you.
Q: James Bays, Al Jazeera. Could I first ask you on Ethiopia: You say there is no military solution, but the Ethiopian Government and the Eritrean forces believe they are close to victory.
And secondly, if I could ask you on Haiti: Why is an international force needed, and are you close to getting countries coming forward, stepping up to provide such a force?
SG: First of all, the problem with wars is when both sides think they can win the war. And we have had episodes in which both sides have affirmed that conviction. My belief is that there is really no military solution. And it’s important to think about the need to reconcile the communities that have been so dramatically impacted by this war.
Now, in relation to Haiti, we live in an absolutely dramatic situation. We have the harbor blocked by gangs, not allowing fuel and other needed materials to move. We have, because of that, no fuel in the city. Where there is no fuel, there is no water. And we have an outbreak of cholera, and you know that the treatment for cholera, the most important treatment is hydration, and there is no water available in the city. So it’s an absolutely nightmarish situation for the population of Haiti, especially Port-au-Prince. That is the reason why twice I referred in informal meetings to the Security Council and formally through a report, a letter I presented, that I believe that we need not only to strengthen the police, strengthening it with training, with equipment, with a number of other measures, but that, in the present circumstances, we need an armed action to release the port and to allow for a humanitarian corridor to be established. I am talking about something to be done in support of the Haitian police and I am talking of something to be done based on strict humanitarian criteria, independent of the political dimensions of the problem that need to be solved by the Haitians themselves.
Q: Thank you. Sherwin Bryce-Pease, South Africa Broadcasting Company. Secretary-General, there are two issues in the Security Council. There is an argument that says this is an internal matter and sovereignty needs to be respected, and then there is also the space to allow the African processes to play itself out here.
Is it time for the Security Council to take a more active role in terms of sanctioning members of resolutions that, for example, as it pertains to what happens in Ethiopia?
SG: You are referring to which of these…?
Q: To the situation in Ethiopia. There has been an argument that this is an internal matter, and that the Council does not have any purview, given its role in terms of International Peace and Security, and also to give the Africans the space to solve their own problems; is it time for greater action from the Council?
SG: I do believe that this conflict, which essentially was born as an internal conflict, today has an international dimension. You have Eritrean forces inside Ethiopia; you have a delicate situation on the border with Sudan; so this is something that needs to be seriously considered by all entities, including the Security Council.
Thank you very much.
Q: Mr. Secretary-General, when you say there should be armed action, you said that there should be an armed action in Haiti. Who should carry that out? Have you heard, have you gotten any offers?
SG: That is for the Security Council and Member States to decide.
Q: Do you believe that the conflict in Ukraine takes all the attention from other world problems, like Ethiopia, and why do they have to compete for the attention of tragedies? Why do you think?
SG: I think we need to pay attention to all conflicts where people are suffering. We need to pay a lot of attention necessarily to the crisis in Ukraine that is of global dimension, but we can not forget crises like the Ethiopian one, where the level of suffering and the people, the number of casualties are absolutely gigantic.

Source: UN Secretary-General