Displaying items by tag: Red Cross

A cholera outbreak in Malawi began in March 2022, but fatalities doubled last month: 1,093 deaths have been registered. Malawi is one of the poorest nations in the world. In impoverished communities with little access to clean water, a deadly disease like cholera spreads quickly. The high fatality rate could be due to long distances between health facilities and affected communities, resulting in delayed access to rehydration treatment. Currently there are 600 new cases per day. Malawi usually counts a few hundred cholera patients per year. Pray for the Malawi Red Cross Society providing lifesaving treatment at the community level with oral rehydration therapy. Volunteers ensure that water supplies are safe and that sanitation facilities are working. They also go door-to-door, raising awareness on preventing the disease from spreading. Pray for more agencies and volunteers, to deliver all that is needed to halt the spread.

Hauwa Liman, a midwife with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), was killed days after her kidnappers set a deadline. Ms Liman was taken with two others in the northern town of Rann last March. Fellow-midwife Saifura Ahmed Khorsa was killed last month. Ms Loksha remains a hostage. A 15-year-old schoolgirl is also still being held by the same group, which is affiliated to a faction of Boko Haram. Most of the other 110 students who were kidnapped have now been freed but the girl, who reportedly refused to convert to Islam, remains in captivity. The ICRC's regional director said there was no justification for the execution of innocent young healthcare workers, and feared for its implication on their work in the region. The information and culture minister said that the government would ‘keep the negotiations open’ and continue to work to free Ms Loksha and the schoolgirl. Pray for this work.

Heavy fighting stopped another aid convoy from attending civilians in eastern Ghouta. ‘The situation is evolving on the ground, which doesn’t allow us to carry out the operation in such conditions’, said a spokeswoman for the Red Cross. Syrian government forces divided the besieged enclave in two; further squeezing rebels and tens of thousands of civilians trapped there. At least 87 civilians were killed on 7 March, and dozens were also treated for breathing difficulties, after airstrikes hit eastern Ghouta late that same day. Medics reported symptoms consistent with a toxic attack. The observatory said 60+ people were left struggling to breathe after barrel bombs hit the towns of Saqba and Hammuriyeh. Doctors at one medical facility treated at least 29 patients for chlorine exposure, and it is likely that more victims were treated at other clinics.

A Nigerian air force jet has mistakenly bombed a camp for displaced people near Rann in the north-east of the country where the military is engaged in what it calls its final push against Boko Haram. Up to 100 people were killed and dozens more injured. The dead include six Red Cross employees. The Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) aid agency said it is treating 120 injured people and is seeking help with medical evacuations. ‘This large-scale attack on vulnerable people who have already fled from extreme violence is shocking and unacceptable’, said the MSF director of operations. A Red Cross spokesman stated that the agency's dead employees had been ‘part of a team that had brought in desperately-needed food for over 25,000 displaced persons’. A spokesman for the Nigerian military said that some ‘remnants’ of Boko Haram had been detected outside Rann, and the military had acted to eliminate them. He said that after the mistake was realised, they were ‘all in pain’.