Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was elected to the WHO leadership in 2017, his term ending in August.
Geneva:
World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is the only candidate for WHO leadership when his current term ends, the WHO announced on Friday.
The 56-year-old former Ethiopian health and foreign minister has been at the forefront of the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic as head of the WHO.
Elected to the WHO leadership in 2017, his mandate expired in August the following year.
The WHO said Tedros won the support of 28 countries, including France, Germany, Indonesia, the Netherlands and Spain.
The nomination deadline passed on 23 September. The countries submitted a sealed envelope to the Geneva-based WHO, which opened them no earlier than 1 October.
In 2017, Tedros became the first African citizen to head the powerful UN agency.
He has been the public face of the WHO since the start of the Covid-19 crisis, and is relatively popular because of his role in driving the organization’s efforts to coordinate the pandemic response.
But his candidacy became complicated after Ethiopia reportedly withdrew its support over the conflict in his home region of Tigre.
Candidates for the top spot at the UN health body are usually nominated by their home countries.
Tedros drew the ire of the Addis Ababa government by using the WHO platform to condemn the action in Tigre.
Member states will formally vote for the next head of the WHO in a secret ballot in May during the World Health Assembly, the organization’s main annual meeting of member states.
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