A Nairobi based BBC journalist has resigned to join the armed struggle in Tigray.
In an internal memo, BBC informed its workers that Desta Gebremedhin had left the station with immediate effect.
"We advise that Desta should not be contacted or used in any BBC programmes," reads the memo in part.
Gebremedhin's wife, Weyni Abraha, indicated that she was proud of him because he had not been at peace since the breakout of the war.
Abraha stated that the journalist's final decision was made when he went to Sudan to cover the Tigrayan refugees.
The war in Tigray has gone on for the last six months, having begun in mid November 2020. Tigray is Ethiopia's northernmost region. Bordering Eritrea, it is home to most of the country's estimated 7 million ethnic Tigrayans.
In November, Ethiopia’s prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, launched a military operation in the northern region of Tigray.
According to media reports, the leaders had resisted Abiy's drive to centralize power in the federal government.
U.S. President Joe Biden, in a call with President Uhuru Kenyatta on Thursday, February 25, discussed the deteriorating humanitarian and human rights crises in Ethiopia’s Tigray region and the need to prevent further loss of life and ensure humanitarian access.
Biden, in the first formal telephone call with President Uhuru Kenyatta since he took charge asked Kenya to use its position as chair of the African Union Peace and Security Council to help end conflicts in Ethiopia and Sudan.
“The large-scale human rights abuses taking place in Tigray, including widespread sexual violence, are unacceptable and must end,” he said.
So far, thousands of people have reportedly been killed and hundreds of thousands forced from their homes in the Tigray region.
