Tedros sole nominee as WHO chief UN agency says

GENEVA: Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who has steered the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic, is on course to serve a second five-year term as head of the World Health Organization (WHO) after being the only candidate nominated by 28 countries.

Tedros, a former health and foreign minister of Ethiopia, became the first African elected WHO director-general in May 2017.

The clean slate for the May 2022 election comes even as the European Commission is suspending funding to WHO programmes in the Democratic Republic of Congo over a major sexual abuse scandal, as reported exclusively by Reuters on Thursday (Oct 28).

Some 83 aid workers, a quarter of them employed by the WHO, were involved in sexual exploitation and abuse during Congo's 2018 to 2020 Ebola epidemic, an independent probe said last month.

Health ministers from the WHO's 194 member states are also due to hold an exceptional assembly in November amid mounting pressure for reform pursuant to the organisation's handling of the pandemic.

Tedros drew support from France and Germany, among other European Union members, and three African countries - Botswana, Kenya and Rwanda - the official nomination list showed. Britain, China, Russia and the United States were not among them.

"WHO can announce that a single candidate was proposed by member states by the 23 September 2021 deadline: Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who is the incumbent director-general," the agency said in a statement. The nominations were kept secret to limit lengthy campaigning.

Earlier, the agency sent a letter to member states informing them of the confidential nominations contained in the sealed envelopes submitted by the deadline

Ethiopia declined to nominate Tedros for a second term due to friction over the conflict in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, making it necessary for other countries to step in and do so.

The issue is so sensitive that the African Union has not even discussed the appointment, including at its latest summit this month, African diplomats said.

Tedros has led the global response to COVID-19, the worst public health crisis in a century, which broke out in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019 and has killed 5.2 million people.

The US, under former president Donald Trump, accused him of being "China-centric", a charge he denies.

Relations have warmed since Joe Biden's administration took office in January.

But he annoyed China with public calls in July for it to share Wuhan lab audits and provide more data on early COVID-19 cases. WHO investigators have yet to regain access to the country to probe the origins of coronavirus.

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