It's very tough. Sometimes there were actually terrible stories to hear. One woman was raped in front of her husband. He was killed after they raped her, and her two children were looking at her. If you allowed me to, by the way, I could speak the whole day with a bunch of stories.
I have been hearing from fellow brothers and sisters that notifying the TPLF, TPLF, TPLF.... I'm not here representing the TPLF. I'm here representing humanity. That's what I do for a living. Had this been occurring anywhere else outside of Tigray, I would have been standing on the side of humanity. I'm not here for a popularity speech. I'm not here to respond to someone who is telling me that I'm representing some political party. I am not a member of any political party.
Just for your information, I was one of the physicians who treated the Ethiopian National Defense Force and the Eritrean army after they conquered Mekelle—the injured troops, not only the people. We couldn't even find medical equipment, medical supplies or medicine to help the injured troops from both the Eritrean army and the Ethiopian National Defense Force.
The international community can do independent research and investigation on the human violence. I believe the world is going to regret what's happening in Tigray, because in the whole region, six million people are starving to death. There is no medicine. There is no vaccination. You don't have to be that smart to predict that the vaccine-preventable diseases that are eradicated from the world will definitely flourish in the next decade in Tigray. My daughter, who recently celebrated her second birthday, hasn't had the chance to get vaccinated.
I'll tell you this as I stand here: I'm not a politician, and I'm not going to ask for a weapon—no—but I'm going to ask for unfettered humanitarian access to Tigray for the sake of humanity.
Thank you very much.