"I have many relatives there. I want to send them money. I cannot send them money," he said at a press conference. "I don't know even who is dead or who is alive," he continued.

On Wednesday he said the situation was worse than that in Ukraine and suggested racism at the heart of global response differences.

Tens of thousands of civilians have died and millions are in urgent need of food aid. The World Food Programme says that almost half of Tigray's 5.5 million population are in "severe" need of food.

Since the war began in 2020, the region has been cut off from the outside world, with no phone or internet, a BBC report said.

Ethiopia's government has been accused of imposing an aid blockade on the region which impeded crucial deliveries - something it blamed on the fighting.

It is not the first time Dr Tedros, a former Ethiopian health minister, has spoken about the war. "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 colour of the skin of the people in Tigray."

Fighting resumed this week after months of calm following the humanitarian truce agreed in March between Tigrayan forces and the Ethiopian government, the BBC said.

A spokesperson for the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), Getachew Reda, told the BBC that heavy fighting was still going on and that the people of Tigray were suffering.

The Tigray war broke out in Ethiopia's northernmost region in November 2020 - later spreading south to the Amhara and Afar regions.

Thousands were killed, over two million people fled their homes and some 700,000 people were left living in "famine-like conditions", BBC quoted US officials as saying.

In 2020 Tedros was accused of helping Tigray rebels procure weapons. "There have been reports suggesting I am taking sides in this situation. This is not true," he tweeted at the time.