Day: January 3, 2022

CONAKRY— The transitional authorities in Guinea-Conakry have allowed former president Alpha Condé to leave the country to seek medical help.

The condition is that the former president cannot stay away for more than one month unless advised otherwise by the medical professionals.

The announcement came in response to a request sent by ECOWAS to the new leader of the country, colonel Mamadi Doumbouya, on the Dec 23.

The news of Alpha Condé imminent release was greeted by the former president’s supporters.

Alpha Condé came to power in December 2010 and was re-elected in 2015 before seeking a third term that he won under controversial circumstances. A coup triggered his removal from power in September 2021.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

NAIROBI— Kenyan police arrested a Dutch national wanted by Interpol for allegedly smuggling dozens of men, women and children to Europe.

John Habeta, 53, was allegedly involved in at least four different operations to smuggle groups of Eritrean nationals into Europe using routes from Asia.

The fugitive was arrested on Dec 16, in the outskirts of Nairobi after an Interpol Red Notice (international fugitive alert) was published earlier last month for people smuggling and use of fake identity documents to carry out transcontinental smuggling operations.

According to Interpol, the suspect was wanted by The Netherlands since 2017 and was taken into custody at Schiphol International airport in Amsterdam on Christmas Day after his arrest in Kenya.

“Acting on globally sourced INTERPOL intelligence leads, the INTERPOL National Central Bureau (NCB) in The Hague alerted the Kenyan NCB to the fugitive’s presence in Nairobi on 10 December.,” Interpol said.

“An INTERPOL Red Notice – or international fugitive alert – was published the same day for people smuggling and use of fake identity documents to carry out transcontinental smuggling operations, triggering the suspect’s surveillance and arrest on the outskirts of the Kenyan capital.”

The Interpol National Central Bureau (NCB) in The Hague alerted the Kenyan NCB to the fugitive’s presence in Nairobi on Dec 10.

He remains in custody in The Netherlands until trial where, if convicted, he faces up to eight years in prison.

Interpol’s specialised unit on migrant smuggling and human trafficking identified Habeta as a high priority target in October 2020 when member countries alerted them to new leads about the fugitive’s global smuggling activities, which were immediately shared with the NCB in The Hague.

The organisation said that the subsequent issue of the Red Notice played a central role in the location and arrest of the fugitive.

People smuggling syndicates are run like businesses with high-profit margins and links to a wide range of serious and often violent crimes including illicit money flows, corruption, terrorism, trafficking in illicit goods and human trafficking.

They focus on profit margins, facilitating the passage of migrants with little or no regard for their safety and well-being.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

A community health service in Africa’s largest urban slum is helping poor people get affordable emergency services during the COVID pandemic.

The Kibera community emergency response team in Nairobi is offering a $1 monthly fee for access to emergency services, including an ambulance.

Poor people — like those living in Nairobi’s Kibera slum — find it difficult to access emergency health care.

Even where public services such as clinics and hospitals are provided within slums, the high cost effectively bars most Kibera residents from calling an ambulance.

It’s a challenge Moses Omondi — who was born and brought up in Kibera slum — has undertaken.

He formed a community emergency response team that provides services to slum residents for a fee of $1 a month, including ambulance transport to the hospitals.

“If you have an ambulance, you can easily access a hospital because no hospital should deny you services when you have been taken there by an ambulance, Moses Omondi said. “It means it’s an emergency case that needs emergency attention.”

Annet Okumu is one of about 300 subscribers to the ambulance service. She said she received potentially lifesaving care inside an ambulance after an accident last year.

“The condition I was in wasn’t that good,” Okumu said. “I was really having a very bad headache, I was bleeding. So maybe I could have overbled if I couldn’t have gotten the first aid service.”

Non-profit groups and other benefactors support the service. So far, there is one ambulance for an estimated 250,000 residents in the slum. Officials hope to increase the number to five.

Ambulance services in Kenya ordinarily cost up to $400 depending on the needs of a patient, such as a ventilator and the distance involved.

Officials say arrangements that provide public access to affordable emergency services are especially important during the COVID-19 era. Judith Okech is the head of the Ambulex Kenya service.

“It’s a service people are acknowledging that they very much need, and you’ll realize that people living within such settings, some of them have never called for an ambulance because they know that if you call for an ambulance it’s never going to get there, or you’ll be asked for a lot of money that they are not able to afford,” Judith said.

Residents say the community service emergency response team offers hope they will have better access to the health care they need.

Source: Voice of America