#OFFTHEWIRES #NEWSUPDATE The three nations at the centre of the west African Ebola outbreak were left increasingly isolated on Wednesday as more airlines suspended flights to the crisis zone. Air France agreed to Pariss request for a temporary suspension of services to Sierra Leone, leaving its capital Freetown and Monrovia in neighbouring Liberia with just one regular service, from Royal Air Morocco (RAM). Air Frances decision came a day after British Airways said it was suspending flights to Liberia and Sierra Leone until next year due to Ebola concerns. Authorities are scrambling to contain the worst outbreak of the lethal tropical virus in history, which has killed more than 1 400 people since it erupted in west Africa early this year. The United Nations Ebola envoy David Nabarro on Monday took a swipe at airlines who had cut off Ebola-hit countries by scrapping flights. ------------ Medical aid organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres on Wednesday warned that the international response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa was chaotic and entirely inadequate. In Liberia, Ebola management centres were overwhelmed while the virus continued to spread rapidly, said MSF. Much of the health care system in the capital, Monrovia, had come to a standstill because health workers and patients were afraid of getting infected in hospitals and clinics. This was generating an emergency within the emergency, cautioned MSF. The unprecedented influx of patients is forcing MSF to reduce its level of care, the organization said. It is no longer able, for example, to administer intravenous treatments. ---------------- Windhoek - A young woman was shot dead in Namibia on Wednesday in clashes between police and the children of fallen independence fighters, a rare incidence of political violence in the country. Frieda Ndatipo, 26, was killed during a demonstration calling for jobs in front of headquarters of the countrys ruling party, the South West Africa Peoples Organization (SWAPO). Two police officers were also seriously injured. Ndatipo was one of the so-called struggle kids - a group of young Namibians who are calling on the government to employ them. Most of the group have parents who died in the guerrilla war for independence from South Africa, which ended in 1990. Addressing parliament, Prime Minister Hage Geingob described Ndatipos death as a highly tragic and regrettable event. ------------ Yaounde - Cameroons army has killed 27 members of Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram near a northern town, state radio said on Wednesday, in a sign of the growing cross-border threat the militants pose. The Boko Haram fighters crossed the border into Cameroon earlier this week, after attacking a military base and police station in Nigeria and apparently sending some 480 Nigerian troops retreating across the frontier. Cameroon borders a part of northeastern Nigeria that has seen intense fighting over the past two weeks. Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau released a video on Sunday showing his heavily armed fighters apparently taking over the hilly Nigerian border town of Gwoza last week, which he declared an Islamic territory. ------------ Harare - Zimbabwe riot police detained a dozen opposition protesters and beat up others at a demonstration on Wednesday over high unemployment, an AFP correspondent witnessed. Police armed with batons descended on around 100 members of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change in the capital Harare, days after its party leader advocated a wave of nationwide demonstrations. Protesters were beaten and bundled into marked police vans as they headed toward parliament to present a jobs petition to the speaker of national assembly. Police spokespeople were not available to confirm the number detained or if charges had been laid.
Posted on: Thu, 28 Aug 2014 09:00:57 +0000
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