France and Germany, in coordination with a group of states under the European Union, nominates Tedros Adhanom for the election of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General to be held in May 2022.
Running for a second five-year term, Tedros is formally nominated by more than 12 European Union members so far and also backed by African countries like Kenya. This comes just a few months after he has been rejected by Ethiopia due to friction over the Tigray conflict.
The former Ethiopian Minister of Health and Foreign Affairs was elected as WHO’s first African Director-General in May 2017. He has led the global fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, which has killed more than 4.5 million people so far. He waded into hot water soon after reporting the pandemic.
The Donald Trump administration accused Tedros of being "China-centric", a claim which has been rejected by him. Tedros currently earns a salary of 239,755 dollars gross salary per annum, with a corresponding net salary of 173,738 dollars.
