Metro

35 Ethiopian children die as drought, conflict, escalate – Medical Charity

Published

2 years ago

June 10, 2022

Medical charity, Doctors Without Borders (DWB), has confirmed that at least 35 Ethiopian children have died due to drought and conflicts in the country’s northeastern Afar region in recent weeks.

The DWB made the disclosure on Thursday after a government minister denied that people have died due to food shortages which is gradually leading to a famine.

Ethiopia’s Minister of Planning and Development, Fitsum Assefa, had on Monday, told cabinet members that though millions of people in the South Oromia and Somali regions need food assistance, no one had died due to hunger.

“An additional 5.2 million in Tigray, around 600,000 in Afar and 8.7 million in the Amhara region also need food assistance and are receiving assistance both by the government and donors,” she said, but denied the loss of human lives, calling the efforts a “big success.”

But while countering her, the medical charity said in a statement that “35 children have died in the last eight weeks alone and more than two-thirds of those patients died within 48 hours of admission,” while noting an escalating crisis in the arid region of the country.

The statement which was issued by the group’s emergency coordinator in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, Raphael Veicht, added:

“What scares us most at this point is that we are only beginning to see the very tip of the iceberg, and already it is overwhelming.

“The number of malnourished and sick children arriving at hospitals is rising steadily. Hence, the mortality rate among children is also rising

“Our hospital wards are full, so we are using tents. Even that is getting full, so we are treating some of them in the corridors.”

The United Nations had also raised the alarm on Tuesday about the impending famine and hunger induced by drought in the region and appealed for $847 million to help support 4.2 million people, half of them children in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Eritrea and Djibouti.

“The nutrition situation in the region is extremely concerning as malnutrition rates are increasing, particularly in Ethiopia, and in the arid and semi-arid lands of Kenya and Somalia,” the UN had said.

Ethiopia is currently facing one of the worst droughts in the past 40 years following consecutive failed rains in the region with the Afar region also witnessing some of the fiercest fighting in the war between Ethiopia and the Tigray region since November 2020.

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Metro

Zambia’s ruling party UPND warns against personal attacks on President Hichilema

Published

4 hours ago

November 5, 2024

Isaac Dachen

Zambia’s ruling party, the UPND, has warned opposition politicians and critics against personal attacks on President Hakainde Hichilema as his meekness should not be mistaken for weakness.

Secretary-General of the UPND, Batuke Imenda, who gave the warning in a statement in Lusaka on Monday, urged political opponents to always engage in mature and issue-based discourse.

Zambia Monitor reports that Imenda’s warning, was directed at the leader of Zambia Must Prosper (ZMP) party, Kelvin Bwalya Fube, whose recent remarks Imenda described as “provocative” and a “feeble attempt to mislead citizens.”

“Provocative words uttered by Kelvin Bwalya against our party and President Hichilema are a clear demonstration of naivety,” Imenda said in the statement.

He further advised Bwalya to abandon personal attacks and focus on substantial political issues.

The UPND Secretary suggested that Bwalya’s attacks stemmed from a desire for relevance amid declining political fortunes, hinting at a possible alignment with former President Edgar Lungu.

“It appears KBF is hoping that Edgar Lungu might support his embattled political career by unjustly attacking President Hichilema,” he said.

Imenda defended the President’s record, highlighting that under Hichilema’s leadership, Zambia’s democratic space had expanded compared to the previous PF administration, which he accused of stifling freedoms.

He noted that while criticism was welcome, it should not devolve into baseless attacks, warning that opposition figures should not misinterpret Hichilema’s restraint as weakness.

Imenda also criticized Bwalya for overlooking the gains in transparency and justice since the change in government, claiming that past regimes were marked by resource mismanagement and corruption.

Metro

Following backlash, Nigerian govt withdraws treason charges against minors

Published

10 hours ago

November 5, 2024

Isaac Dachen

The Nigerian government has officially withdrawn the treason charges it entered against some minors who participated in the #EndBadGovernance protest that spread across the country from August 1 to the 10th.

The nation was thrown into shock on Friday when the Nigeria Police presented 76 protesters at the Federal High Court in Abuja on charges bordering on treason. Among the suspects were four minors who slumped before they could be arraigned before the court.

This caused serious uproar in the country with Nigerians condemning the government and calling for the unconditional release of the kids and the dismissal of the charges against them.

The decision to withdraw the charges against the underage accused came following a directive by President Bola Tinubu who ordered the immediate withdrawal of the charges and an in-depth investigation into what led to the arrest and detention of the minors.

Tinubu had also ordered the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi, (SAN) to officially take over the case file as well as review the cases following public outcry that came with the arraignment of the minors.

The charges were finally withdrawn on Tuesday at the Federal High Court in Abuja through an application for discontinuance filled by the Director of Public Prosecution of the Federation (DPPF), Mohammed Abubakar, on behalf of the AGF.

According to Abubakar, the discontinuance application was based on provisions of sections 174(1), (b) and (c) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, and 108 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, ACJA, 2015.

The DPPF also applied for further proceedings to be conducted without the presence of the minors in the courtroom, in line with provisions of Section 266(b) of the ACJA, 2015, and Section 1 of the Childs’ Rights Act.

In response, human rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Fanala (SAN), who stood in for the accused as well as other defence lawyers in the matter, did not oppose the applications which promoted the judge, Justice Obiora Egwuatu, to strike out the charges, while the four affected minors were also delisted from the charge sheet.