Kidnapped Sudanese Charity Workers Freed
After being kidnapped by gunmen in Darfur last Wednesday, three foreign charity workers were released this weekend, reports the BBC. The workers, part of the charity Doctors Without Borders, included an administrator from France, a nurse from Canada and a doctor from Italy. After they were taken at gunpoint last week from the group’s office, the captors reportedly had asked for a ransom. But both Sudanese and Italian officials insist that there was not any ransom paid. According to Osman Yusuf Kibir, governor of North Darfur, the kidnappers were part of a group called the Eagles of Bashir, and carried out the kidnapping to protest an international court’s move to issue an arrest warrant against President Omar al-Bashir for his alleged war crimes. “They released them for the country’s sake, and they kidnapped them for the sake of the country,” Kibir told the news service. Soon after the kidnapping, the charity had pulled out of the area due to security concerns, and, according to a high-ranking official, they are still not sure whether they’ll be able to continue their projects in Darfur due to security concerns.

Rabies Outbreak Kills More Than 80 Angolan Kid
An outbreak of rabies in the African nation of Angola has killed at least 83 children in three months, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Some say the number could be much higher.  “The children were brought to our hospital and are the only ones we know of, so the number could be higher,” Dr. David Bernardino, who works at Hospital Pediatrico, told CNN. Some children were brought in too late to be saved by doctors, and some could not be saved because the hospital had run out of vaccines to treat the illness. “It is a sad moment for us. I think it was probably that no one was prepared for such a high case load,” he said. Stray dogs in the slums of the country’s capital, Luanda, could be behind the tragic epidemic.  “We have had some sporadic cases in other provincial capitals in the country; we think the virus was brought into Luanda and then spread through the dogs – Angolans love dogs,” the doctor told CNN. Recently, though, the nation has seen a drop in cases; perhaps due to the fact that the infected pack of dogs have died, according to one expert. More than 95 percent of rabies deaths are in Asia or Africa, according to stats from WHO. The illness, transmitted through saliva, can be treated after exposure, but the disease is deadly once symptoms start showing. Francois Meslin, a rabies expert from WHO, told CNN that costs might prevent some poor families from getting treatment. “One dose of vaccine costs about $10 and five of those have to be administered, which makes the total cost of treatment $50, which is more than a month’s salary for families in most developing countries,” he said. 

TAGS: angola, Darfur, Omar al-Bashir, rabies, Sudan

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