United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Wednesday that Ethiopia has no right to expel UN staff and it is violating international law in doing this.

In his right of reply at the Security Council meeting on Ethiopia, the top UN official said that “we believe that Ethiopia has not the right to expel these members of the UN.”

“We believe Ethiopia is violating international law in doing so,” he added.

Speaking directly to Ethiopia’s permanent representative to the UN, Taye Atske Selassie, who was also in the Security Council chamber, the secretary-general said that “if there is any written document, provided by the Ethiopian Government to any UN institution, about any of the members of the UN that were expelled, I would like to receive a copy of that document, because I have not had any knowledge of any of them.”