The Nation Newspaper

Tag: African

  • African oil producers seek production cut

    The African Petroleum Producers Association (AAPA), which represents oil and gas producers from Algeria to South Africa, have called for a cut in oil output globally.

    The group also includes the continent’s biggest producers, Nigeria and Angola. It’s starting an initiative, led by Angola and Algeria, to seek collaboration between members of Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and other oil producers to reduce output and stabilise oil prices, which have halved since the end of June.

    APPA wants “to set up a platform of commitment at the international level from the producing countries,” said Ousmane Doukoure, director of exploration and production at Ivory Coast’s oil ministry, as he read out a statement at the end of an APPA meeting in Abidjan, Ivory Coast’s commercial capital.

    African countries from Angola to Nigeria to Equatorial Guinea have had to cut their budgets in recent months after the plunge in oil prices affected the amount of income they will get from their biggest exports. Countries, including the continent’s biggest economy Nigeria, have slashed growth forecasts.

    “We are very concerned by the drop of the price,” said Gabriel Lima Obiang, oil minister for Equatorial Guinea, after the meeting. “We are revising already our budget because of the price and we have been welcoming an initiative by Angola and Algeria to study a way we can work together to stabilize the price in the future.”

    Of the African producers only Algeria, Libya, Nigeria and Angola are members of OPEC. While some members of OPEC have called for an output cut the biggest producer in the organization, Saudi Arabia, is opposing any reduction in output.

    “The current prices are unfair and are having an impact on the economies of African countries,” Mashallah Zwai, oil minister for the Tripoli-based Islamist government in Libya, said through an interpreter. “We will ensure our voice is heard about this crisis so as to emerge from it as soon as possible.”

    Zwai said Africa accounts for about 8 percent of global oil production.

    Libya is split with a separate government, based in the Eastern town of Tobruk, recognised by the United Nations (UN).

    “It has been a drastic reduction” in the oil price, Obiang said. “What we need to do is think of new initiatives, for example the diversification of our economies, so as we don’t depend on oil.”

    Nigeria, Africa’s biggest oil producer, relies on the commodity for over 90 per cent of its export income.

    Brent crude oil traded at $54.95 a barrel on Thursday. Its lowest level since June was $46.59 on Jan. 13.

     

  • African leaders meet on Boko Haram

    African leaders meet on Boko Haram

    Leaders of central and West African states will hold a summit next week to draw up a joint strategy against Nigeria’s Boko Haram militants, a statement from organisers said yesterday.

    The April 8 summit will be the first of its kind since Nigeria’s election a week ago which was won by Muhammadu Buhari, a former military leader who has vowed to rid his country of the “terror” of Boko Haram.

    “In the face of the mounting and increasingly bloody attacks by the fundamentalists against Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon and Chad and the series of consequences for these countries, and the real reask of destabilising western and central Africa, the two organisations have decided to take action,” a statement from regional bloc ECOWAS said.

    A coalition involving troops from the four countries has been waging offensives against the Islamists in a bid to crush the insurgency, which has now spread across borders from Boko Haram’s stronghold in Nigeria.

    The meeting in Malabo, capital of Equatorial Guinea, is being jointly organised by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS).

    It was not immediately clear if Buhari would be attending as he will not be sworn in as president to succeed incumbent Goodluck Jonathan until May 29.

    The Boko Haram insurgency has led to the deaths of more than 15,000 people dead since since 2009, UN rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said last week.

    “Countless more children, women and men have been abducted, abused and forcibly recruited, and women and girls have been targeted for particularly horrific abuse, including sexual enslavement,” he told the

    “This despicable and wanton carnage, which constitutes a clear and urgent menace for development, peace and security, must be stopped,” Zeid said.

  • African Central Bank governors meet in Addis Ababa March 29

    African Central Bank governors meet in Addis Ababa March 29

    The Economic Commission for Africa and the African Union Commission will host the second Caucus of African Central Bank Governors, in Addis Ababa in the margins of the eighth Joint Annual Meetings of the AU Specialised Technical Committee on Finance, Monetary Affairs, Economic Planning and Integration and the ECA Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development. The Conference will be held on the theme, Implementing Agenda 2063 – Planning, Mobilising and Financing for Development. The meeting will take place on 29 March at the UN Conference Centre.

    The main objectives of the Caucus are to identify concrete follow-up measures to the outcomes of the first Caucus, which was held in Abuja in 2014. They will also look into measures to enhance the role of governors of central banks in the consultations leading up to the Third International Conference on for central banks in Africa.

    The Caucus, which brings together the governors of central banks of a number of African countries, will provide a unique opportunity for governors to engage in structured dialogue on the issues that they would like to see reflected in the outcome document. An action plan will be developed, outlining a road map for the implementation of the proposals of the first Caucus that was held Financing for Development, which will take place in July 2015 whose outcomes are expected to have direct implications in Abuja.

  • An attempt at the true origin of the West African peoples

    An attempt at the true origin of the West African peoples

    Title: Exposition: The Hebrew Origin of The West African Peoples
    Author:Olalekan Abiola-Kushehin
    Publisher: Liberal Consults
    No. of Pages: 109
    Year of Publication: 2014
    Reviewer: Gboyega Alaka

    Are you one of those who have been wondering about the true origin of the West African peoples? Better still, do you wonder about the amazing resemblance in languages, cultures and the possible relationship between tribes like the Ewe, Yoruba, Idoma, Akan, Igala, Edo, Igbo, Nupe, Aku, Efik, Ga, Ibibion, Urhobo, Ijaw, Kanuri, Fon, Itsekiri, Tiv and co?

    Then the book, EXPOSITION: The Hebrew Origin of The West African Peoples, written by Olalekan Abiola-Kushehin may just come handy. Abiola-Kushehin, a widely travelled pastor at the Good News Baptist Church, Surulere, Lagos who has spent a good length of time in Isreal encountered similarities in the culture and languages of West African tribes, which he found too striking to be mere coincidence, prompting a further research that finally culminated in the book, EXPOSITION.

    According to the author in the preface, EXPOSITION is a book written for one vital, though quickly forgotten reason: to create the necessary awareness amongst the people of West Africa of their Hebrew origin, and the need for all to return to God….The book is written out of the burden I have to actually search for the true origin of my people. There are three angles I have looked at in the realisation of my goal: Religious, Cultural and Linguistic geography.”

    The 12-chapter book starts with Return To God, where the author sought to establish that the fall of man is a consequence of his disobedience to God. In page 4, he pointed out that slavery is one of the ways God punished his people, talking about the Hebrews, who transgressed.

    “This same slavery is the chief reason why we lost touch with our Abrahamic origin- talking about Africans, leading us into various strange land. It also continued, when we as Africans now, were taken away to the Americas and Europe for all forms of labour.”

    In “The Sin of Idolatary: A Justification (Chapter 2), he tries to show that “It is not man that holds man captivity in all cases, but the sin of man.” he cited the captivity of Isreal in 586 BC as an example where they were severally warned through several prophets, before His wrath fell on them. In the same vein, he said Nebuchadnezzar was also fulfilling God’s plan; same for the Roman invasion led by Gen. Pompey in 63 BC; the Jewish revolt against the Roman rule, which ultimately led to a massive destruction of Jerusalem and a further plundering of the Jews; right through to the most recent in history, when 6million Jews were reportedly massacred by Hitler’s Nazi regime between 1933 and 1945. Never mind the fact that even Hitler himself was later confirmed to be a Jew through a DNA conducted on his cousin years later.

    He also debunked the theory that the enslavement of the West African people has  direct link with the Hamitic curse in the bible and the British physician, C. G. Seligman Hamitic hypothesis that the sub-Saharan Africans never developed a civilisation, citing the Nok culture that dates back to 1000BC and the Ife Bronze and Terra-cotta.

    Immigration and a Peoples’ Language (Chapter 3) tries to link the history of West Africans, citing how the Yoruba, who claim to be from Saudi Arabia and actually only passed through the Arabian peninsula in the course of their sojourn like several other Jewish tribes, leaving residues as they travelled and spread across the African continent; picking bits of languages and cultures.

    Quoting Dr. Nwankwo T. Nwaezeigwe, an eminent Historian and Igbo Scholar, he cited the similarities in vocabularies amongst the Igbo, Edo, Yoruba, Igede, Idoma, Nupe and Igbira with words like biwa nibi, bia neba, meaning ‘come here.’

    ‘Isreal to Nigeria’ (Chapter 4), traces Oduduwa’s root as a prince of Juba (Judah), who actually came to join his people who had come ahead of him and settled in Ile-Ife after the 70 AD attack on the Jews. He debunks the theory of their Mecca origin saying “the Yoruba are not Semitic Arabs but Semitic Jews, judging from the Yoruba traditional religion of Ifa, which is Judeo-Christian in practice.” He also said that if they are indeed bonafide Arabs, the story of them being driven out of the Arab peninsula would never have arisen.

    Chapter 5 talks about culture and tradition and the fact that it is a way of life of a people that is hardly dropped. He uses cases like circumcision, which is a covenant known only to Abraham and his descendants, linking it with how the Yoruba and Igbo (page 37) have religiously comply with this 8th day culture from years immemorial; same for naming, reverence for twin children, bowing as a sign of respect, animal slaughter, endogamy and talent and love for music.

    He went further in chapter 6 to debunk the autochthonous myth of Ile-Ife as the origin of creation, saying this was the outcome of the peoples falling out of favour with their God and having to regenerate themselves over centuries and settlements.

    In page 45, he said “Around a thousand years ago, Ile-Ife was a fortified city like Jerusalem,” concluding therefore that “it is my opinion that Ile-Ife is merely a cognate of Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian Empire where the people from the Northern Kingdom of Isreal were taken captive in 743 BC .

    On page 52, he also alludes that Ile-Ife was the spread out point for all the West African tribes that eventually emerged in the sub-region and that it was Oduduwa who gave the Igbos (who actually arrived Ile-Ife first before spreading out) the name Igbo (awon ara igbo, meaning people of the forest, since they resided in the deeper side of the forest).

    In chapter 7, he says “Ifa is referred to as an Oracle, the Lord Jesus Christ who has being (sic) speaking to man since creation… a divine utterance to man, usually in answer to a request for guidance.”

    In page 64, he said, Orunmila, in Ifa is the same divine person as Jesus the Christ in the Christian scripture.”

    The author also dedicates a whole chapter (9) to Obatala, saying “Obatala is one of the numerous names of Jesus in Ifa traditional religion of the West Africa peoples. Other names are Ela, Orunmila, Orisa-nla, etc.

    Chapter 10 focuses on the vocabularies and a striking resemblance between words of Yoruba and West African origin and the Hebrew language.

  • The African condition – 2

    Mercifully, Lesotho is a more civilised place of slightly over a million people, perhaps too civilised, because there are about 10 political parties there creating a sense of instability. Politics seems to be the only profitable business in Lesotho, therefore creating a feeling of hopelessness in the citizenry. I was in this country in the late 1980s as part of Commonwealth electoral monitoring group. I was amazed at the level of drunkenness, unemployment, sexual licence and prevalence of AIDS infection and consequent high mortality. Zambia, Malawi and particularly Zimbabwe are studies in political and economic regression. The story of Zimbabwe is one of the saddest on the continent. Here is a country whose people fought gallantly for their freedom and liberation from white settler regime. The regime of Ian Smith who had boasted “not in a thousand years” will there be majority rule in the then South Rhodesia was happily pushed aside by the fighting cadres of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) and the Zimbabwe African Peoples Union (ZAPU) under the leaderships of Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo respectively. Hardly had victory been won when the two parties took on each other in a death grip with Robert Mugabe winning. This was the licence he needed to stay in power from the time of independence in the 1980s till now at the ripe age of 90. More galling is the fact that he has perpetuated himself in power and he is busy grooming his wife, who is half his age, as his successor and future president of the country. While engaged in this travesty of rule, he has watched the country’s economy collapse into Stone Age primitivity of people merely surviving and not living.

    When one moves to the Horn of Africa, the picture is the same. In Ethiopia the previous revolutionaries now in government have become reactionaries killing protesting students after rigged election. Somalia has disappeared, at least politically from the map and the country is a free for all for Al-Qaeda, Al-Shabaab and other terrorists high on khat and marijuana. Somalia has the distinction of being the first state to disappear as a political entity in the world. Eritrea that seceded from Ethiopia is locked in mortal struggle against its bigger neighbour over a tract of forbidden frontier. The Sudan is now divided into North and South along racial lines, and if Darfur in the South West of the country succeeds in its war of secession, it may add another division to a complex map. Yet the work of governance is left in abeyance while the Janjaweed and the Sudanese government with support from oil consuming India and China slaughters its own people. The chaos has spread into Chad, where Idris Derby, the typical African ruler refuses to give up power.

    West Africa is not better. Central Africa is even worse. The central Africa Republic and Congo Brazzaville have alternated between one brutal leader and the other. The Ivory Coast, the economic jewel of French speaking West Africa is coming out of the division arising from struggle for political power between Laurant Gbagbo and Al-Hassan Watara, between a Christian and a Muslim manifesting a malady afflicting the whole of West Africa. Guinea is afflicted by ethnic struggle between the Fulah and the Mandinka because of the problem of political succession. Nigeria the crown jewel of the continent is struggling against the tide of political instability because of problem of political succession.

    Yet Africa announced a few years ago, NEPAD- New Partnership for African Development. There has been neither partnership nor development. The African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) that was supposed to ensure leaders abide by constitutional rules has been ignored.

    North Africa to complete the picture is not different. Morocco, with its Sharifian dynasty is modernising royal tyranny and Tunisia that first raised the flag of Arab Spring has just elected an 88 year old president. There has been no peace in Libya since Africa colluded with the West to murder Muamar Ghadafi, its late mercurial sit-tight leader. Now the country is partly occupied by ISIS with loyalty to Al-Baghdadi its murdering caliph somewhere in Mosul. Egypt tried some form of Islamic democracy under the Muslim Brotherhood President Muhammad Morsi before General Muhammad Al-sisi threw him out and the country has therefore murdered sleep. FIS (Front Islamique du Salut) is waiting for Algeria under its eternal leader Abdul-aziz Bouteflika to collapse.

    Nigeria has the biggest economy on the continent and has 25% of Africa’s population. Its 170 million people are poorly served by a conniving and corrupt regime at all levels. Its problems are compounded not only by the fissiparous tendencies of religious schism but deep seated ethnic animosity of one group against the other thus making national consensus near impossible. Leaders of Nigeria are oblivious of the fact that other Africans look up to them. Therefore if the country fails it will drag the entire continent down with her.

    It is really sad that just a few years ago, Africa was seen as the frontier of opportunity and economic growth. Like a mirage this hope of a happy African decade has disappeared. What this illusion has proved is that prosperity cannot be built on export of raw materials and minerals alone. Africans must add value to their God-given endowments. Secondly, Africans must be eternally vigilant about their self-serving and self-aggrandising leaders if the fruit of liberty and development is to come to them and to the generations of Africans yet to be born. There is also a need for massive civic education in Africa to prepare the citizens for their civic responsibilities and rights. Not only that, the place of the black man in the world needs to be emphasised. We are not living in a cocoon isolated from the rest of the world. We therefore have to march in tandem with the rest of civilised world observing the norms of civilised behaviour.

  • Konga set for more African markets

    Having  closed  2014  with remarkable successes, Konga is looking to expand to other countries in Africa this year.

    According to its Head of Public Relations, Olatomiwa Akande, Konga started last year with a renewed focus on satisfying customers. A highly lauded feature by Konga was the launch of its own logistics unit called KExpress.

    Today, KExpress boasts a fleet of over 200 vehicles in less than five months that has greatly enhanced Konga’s order fulfillment to customers all across Nigeria; this is in addition to Konga’s partnerships with other third party courier companies across Nigeria.

    With the expansion of the website through its Marketplace platform, SellerHQ, Konga provided customers with a wider product offering and the added advantage of even more competitive pricing. With this, it now has over 150,000 products for its customers to choose from. Today, almost 10,000 sellers are registered and are actively advertising and trading on Konga.com.

    The highly talked about Yakata Sales in November delivered a record breaking N600 million in sales and closed at a 1,440 per cent sales increase compared to its 2013 edition. Konga sold 500 per cent more items in the two days of Yakata sales than it did in all of 2012.

    Over 40% of the people who shopped during Yakata had never made an online purchase before. With a significant part of Konga’s orders generated from mobile devices, this is a clear pointer that mobile is the way Nigerians will shop online in the future.

    The company now boasts of over 700 employees. It prides itself as an equal opportunity company with females making more than half of its staff population.

    Konga opened its engineering center with a mixed team of seasoned & young, passionate engineers. The company also launched hubs in South Africa and China.

    Konga also launched an Online Seller Academy for e-Commerce. With this novel initiative, Konga is committed to provide its online sellers’ community free self-service learning and training tips, allowing merchants achieve exceptional sales results through their online stores.

    Today the company has over 1.2 million fans on Facebook and more than seventy-five thousand followers on twitter.

    Konga received several prestigious awards and recognition in the course of the year. And in just two and half years, Konga appears to have run straight from the cradle, and is blazing the ecommerce trail in Nigeria today.

     

     

  • African Sun Airport Hotel opens in Lagos

    THE African Sun Airport has opened on the busy Murtala Muhammed Road in Lagos with a promise by its owners to provide quality services.

    Speaking at the inauguration of the hotel last weekend, its Chairman, Air Marshal Jonah Wuyep, said the hotel had come to stay. The chairman, who was represented by his wife Dr Wuyep said beside fulfilling its core objectives, the hotel has provided employment to many Nigerians – directly and indirectly. Also, he said the hotel is being managed by a world-class hotel group. “I know that Nigerians deserve the best and we will ensure you get the best,’’ he said.

    The hotel’s Managing Director Ifeanyi Onwubiko, said he invested in the subsector because of his love for the business. He said: “This is our second branch in Nigeria. The third one is coming up in Abuja, adding that the facility was situated on the busy airport road because “there is no big hotel’’ in the area. He said the hotel employed 80 Nigerians and about four foreigners.

    On competition, Onwubiko said: “We are not competing with anyone. Other hotels are not up to our stuff.’’ Though he did not disclose the cost of the hotel, he said hotel’s main objective is to provide fun, adding that costs would determine where the hotel would be sited next.

    The hotel’s General Manager Sindiso Sibanda, who has over 25 years’experience in the industry, said the organisation is strict on standards, which he said, are built on three Ps – people, products and processes.

    The South African said: “We have put everything in place. We have invested time and checked the products to reach standards. We did two months’ training for staff at our hospitality training academy. Our brand is unique. We have been around for some time and we have been running an hotel for 100 years. And we have been improving over the years. We are in Zimbabwe, Ghana and now in Nigeria and will go to other countries from here.’’

    How much does it cost to build the hotel? He would not give details. “Time is money and we put a lot of time here,’’ Sibanda said. He promised that the hotel’s services would not be expensive. “We can’t say we are expensive. We give value for money as long as people pay, ‘’ he said.

    He said the hospitality industry was improving, despite the insecurity in the country. He said it was a matter for joy that night life had not died despite the insecurity. To tackle the problem of Nigeria’s image, he called for rebranding. “We need to rebrand Nigeria. People can’t be behaving that security is not okay,’’ he added.

  • Social factors limit African women researchers, says don

    The Acting Head, Department of Hospitality and Tourism, College of Food Science and Human Ecology (COLFHEC), Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB) and a Fellow, African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD), Dr. Mobolaji Omemu, has said that social factors hinder the careers of African women researchers.

    She identified cultural norms, family demands, gender inequality, lack of role models, lack of leadership skills, organisational support, and age barrier as some of the major challenges that stall the progress of women researchers.

    Delivering her address at a Role Modelling Event of AWARD, held recently in the University with the theme: “Blocking the Leaky Pipeline: Career Advancement Strategies for Young Women in Science,” Dr. Omemu noted that the number of women that enrolled into agricultural sciences and other related courses was steadily increasing, but is not commensurate with the number of women researchers who move up the career ladder.

    She called for greater commitment, focus and determination from women researchers and encouraged them to always choose younger women that they can mentor.

    Underscoring the importance of planning to career success, the Chairperson, Admissions Committee, FUNAAB, Prof Yemisi Eromosele, recommended that young women researchers should make plans for what they hope to achieve five to 10 years after graduation.

    In his keynote address, the FUNAAB Vice-Chancellor, Prof Olusola Oyewole, said that women who had reached the peak of their careers and fought for their dreams, deserved to be celebrated.

    He added that he lookred forward to a time women would hold 40 percent of leadership positions in the university system.

    He encouraged women to strive for excellence despite the challenges they might face.

  • Old Mutual votes $386m for African expansion

    Old Mutual Plc (OML), Africa’s biggest insurer, has 4.3 billion rand ($386 million) for acquisitions on the continent, where growth rates higher than advanced countries may help boost sales after third-quarter growth declined, according to Bloomberg report.

    “We’ve identified Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana as the key markets,” Ingrid Johnson, chief financial officer, said in a phone interview from London. “There are opportunities to look at Mozambique” after banking unit Nedbank Group Ltd. (NED) took a stake in Banco Unico, she said. Old Mutual is also looking for ways to work more closely with Lome, Togo-based Ecobank Transnational Inc. (ETI), where Nedbank owns 20 per cent.

    While Old Mutual, which was founded in South Africa more than 150 years ago, moved headquarters to London in 1999, its original market remains its largest. The insurer set aside 5 billion rand in March 2013 to expand across the continent and has since bought a stake in Faulu Kenya Ltd.

    “It would be fantastic if we could find more opportunities to invest,” Johnson said. “The first prize would be to find something in those key countries. The team is looking at a lot of things.”

    Old Mutual this year completed an initial public offering for its asset management unit in New York and agreed to buy U.K.-based Quilter Cheviot Ltd. for as much as 585 million pounds ($930 million) to boost its wealth management business. It also bought Intrinsic Financial Services Ltd., a U.K. firm, gaining access to 3,000 financial advisers. Earlier in the year, Old Mutual sold what it termed non-core European units.

    Old Mutual’s gross sales fell 4.6 percent in the third quarter to 6.2 billion pounds from 6.5 billion pounds a year earlier, as economic activity in South Africa slowed, the insurer said in a statement. That was in line with the 6.21 billion-pound estimate of 11 analysts surveyed by the company. Funds under management rose five per cent to 307.6 billion pounds.

    “We reiterate our hold recommendation, but highlight the continued excellent progress the group is making at the underlying level, especially as regards asset accumulation, and its positioning in the U.K.,” Eamonn Flanagan, an analyst at Shore Capital Group Ltd. in London, said in a research note.

    Old Mutual is looking at product innovations to increase gross sales, Johnson said. “The lapse rates were higher than we would have liked. You can’t always defy gravity.”

     

  • Ebola: AU seeks fund from African billionaires

    Ebola: AU seeks fund from African billionaires

    The African Union (AU) has said it is seeking funding from some of the continent’s richest people, including Nigeria’s Aliko Dangote, to pay volunteer doctors and nurses fighting the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in West Africa.

    The continental bloc is seeking to raise $35 million in the first round and, eventually, as much as $100 million for the Business-to-Rescue Fund, said George Sibotshiwe, Executive Director, African Democratic Institution, which is coordinating a November 8 meeting in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, to encourage business people to donate.

    “A campaign to ask for contributions from “citizens” will follow,” he said.

    Dangote, the chairman of Dangote Group in Nigeria, and Patrice Motsepe, chairman of Johannesburg-based African Rainbow Minerals Ltd. (ARI) are expected to attend the meeting, the  AU said in an e-mail statement.

    According to AU, Strive  Masiyiwa, chairman of Econet Wireless International, Safaricom Ltd. of Kenya Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Bob Collymore, South Africa’s MTN Group CEO Sifiso Dabengwa and CEO of Standard Bank Group Ltd. Sim Tshabalala also plan to join.

    Among wealthy businessmen already committing money to curb Ebola are Microsoft co-founders Paul Allen and Bill Gates and Facebook Inc. CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

    The world’s largest Ebola outbreak has killed almost 5,000 people in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone since December. AU member states have pledged to send at least 2,000 health workers to the three West African nations.

    The World Bank estimated that about 5,000 international medical, training and support personnel are needed in the coming months to respond to the outbreak, including as many as 1,000 foreign-health workers to treat patients. More than 200 local doctors and nurses have died since December from the virus, leaving the already-crippled health systems even weaker.