A top United Nations official has warned fighting in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region has spawned the worst humanitarian disaster on Earth. World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus — who’s originally from Tigray — said the conflict, which first erupted in late 2020, now threatens the lives of millions, even as global leaders largely ignore the crisis.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus: “I can tell you that the humanitarian crisis in Tigray is more than Ukraine, without any exaggeration. And I said it many months ago: Maybe the reason is the color of the skin of the people in Tigray.”

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus’s remarks Wednesday came as Ethiopian officials called for a formal ceasefire agreement to end nearly two years of fighting with separatists in Tigray, where some 6 million people have been largely cut off from the outside world for months, unable to access food, medicine and other necessities. The Tigray People’s Liberation Front has so far rejected the peace proposal, calling it “obfuscation” meant to distract from ongoing fighting. The United Nations warns the Tigray conflict has combined with a worsening drought across Ethiopia to threaten the lives of 20 million people.