Three Red Cross Staff Killed in Mozambique

by Michael Bear · 2009-03-13 08:17:00 UTC
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Never hear much from Mozambique on the humanitarian front - I wish it had stayed that way.  As Patronus Analytical reported yesterday:

"Angry mobs have killed at least three Red Cross volunteers and several police officers in Mozambique amidst fears that health staff were responsible for spreading Cholera. The attacks on Red Cross staff began when a rumour spread that the Red Cross and local authorities were infecting wells and fountains with cholera.

Red Cross staff were in fact treating wells with chlorine. Unfortunately local residents confused cloro, the Portuguese word for chlorine, with Cholera and the rumour that health staff were deliberately infecting the wells quickly spread."

Our thoughts and prayers are with their families and colleagues.

[Treating cholera patients in Mozambique - Photo from Mansir Petrie uploaded to NowPublic]

Michael Bear
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