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Ethiopia: Despite truce, shortages of drugs, oxygen continue in Tigray as death increases

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The number of casualties has continued to increase in the prolonged unrest in the troubled Tigray region of Ethiopia due to shortages of life-saving drugs, oxygen, and other humanitarian needs.

Since its outbreak in November 2020, the war, which began in Tigray (northern Ethiopia) and then spread to the neighbouring regions of Amhara and Afar, has been marked by numerous allegations of abuses on both sides.

The war has led to unprecedented and significant attrition of health workers, reduction in maternal and child health services, and an increase in rates of malnutrition, the burden of infectious and non-infectious illness, and gender-based violence.

One of the doctors at Ayder Hospital in Mekele, Tigray’s capital, told journalists that at least 60 patients with kidney disease have died since July. This is due to the lack of supplies needed for regular dialysis.

Another 81 patients have died “directly because of a lack of oxygen” since the conflict between the federal government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, erupted in Nov. 2020, the doctor added.

Last month, the Ethiopian government announced an immediate, unilateral truce in its conflict with rebellious Tigrayan forces to allow aid into the northern province but that has not affected much regarding the accessibility of medical facilities.

The Tigray region is the northernmost regional state in Ethiopia. The Region is the homeland of the Tigrayan, Irob , and Kunama people. Formerly known as Region 1.

According to U.N. figures, more than 90% of Tigray’s 6 million people require humanitarian assistance, including 115,000 children who are severely malnourished. Some shortages have been alleviated by aid flights operated by the World Health Organization and the International Committee of the Red Cross, which have flown in 438 metric tonnes (482 tons) of medical and nutrition supplies since late January.

However, these supplies represent just 4% of what’s required, according to experts.

As a result, staff at Ayder Hospital say they have resorted to washing and reusing surgical gloves and treating patients with expired medicines. They are also recycling plastic breathing tubes and items used for dialysis.

“This is really risky for the patients; they can die of infections and other complications,” said the doctor. “Doctors elsewhere in the world would be shocked to hear we are doing this.”

Metro

Zambia: Minister confirms search for at least 25 miners after Seseli Mine mudslide 

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Zambian Mines Minister, Paul Kabuswe, said on Monday that a search was still on for at least 25 informal miners buried alive three days ago by a mudslide at an open-pit copper mine.

The soft ground is making the rescue workers, who included military personnel and others from large-scale mining companies, cautious, which has been slowing down the operation, according to Kabuswe.

“We must be mindful that we shouldn’t have an accident within another accident,” Kabuswe said.

According to the government, the Seseli Mine in Chingola, approximately 400 km (250 miles) northwest of the capital Lusaka, was flooded by heavy rains, trapping the miners in three different locations.

Zambia is Africa’s second-biggest producer of copper, which is in high demand for the transition to a low-carbon economy, and its government currently aims to boost the country’s copper production to 3 million tonnes a year by 2032, from around 850,000 metric tonnes last year. It has also witnessed a high degree of mining accidents

A week earlier, Canada’s First Quantum Minerals confirmed that two people died at its Zambian operations last week. The miner said a worker from its contracting partner, Reliant Drilling, died at First Quantum’s Kansanshi operations following a fall of ground due to an underground dewatering decline.

The number of trapped miners was not immediately known, but Kabuswe reported that 25 families had so far come forward to claim missing relatives who were employed at the mine as at the time of the accident.

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We are shocked at ex-President Lungu’s outbursts— Zambian Govt

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The Zambia government has expressed shock over the recent outburst by former President Edgar Lungu who accused incumbent President Hakainde Hichilema of doing everything possible to destroy democracy and install a dictatorship in the country.

While speaking at a press conference in Lusaka on Friday, Lungu had alleged that the Hichilema’s administration wanted to “kill democracy and subsequently introduce dictatorship in order to prolong their stay in power.”

He also alleged that all government institutions had been compromised and were being used to hound the opposition.

“All institutions of governance are heavily compromised, I want to repeat that all institutions of governance are highly compromised, you can not even talk about the Police, Registrar of Society, Judiciary, its a question of degree,” Lungu had said.

“Several opposition leaders have been arrested on trumped-up charges in order to silence them and are appearing in the courts of law. The interference can be seen from how they followed Harry Kalaba, Democratic Party, and now they have followed him to the Citizens First, Saboi Imboela’s National Democratic Congress has not been spared,” Lungu had added.

But in a response to the concerns raised by the ex-President, Chief Government spokesperson, Cornelius Mweetwa, said the federal government was surprised by the sentiments expressed by Lungu which it said amounted to advocating civil disobedience by the Zambian people.

In a statement on Saturday,
Mweetwa cautioned Lungu against over-stretching his luck but to “behave himself like a statesman.”

Mweetwa said that government was not happy that Lungu, who should enjoy a position of statesman, was reducing himself to below what was expected of him.

He also insisted that government had no intention of removing Lungu’s immunity as being peddled about in certain quarters.

“Sentiments by the former president that government wants to remove his immunity are unfounded. This is the resolve of president Hakainde Hichilema to ensure that there is unity and peace,” Mweetwa added.

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