600 injured demonstrators treated — ICRC

The International Committee of the Red Cross has said the number of injured protesters treated by its volunteers since the beginning of the nationwide strike by the organised labour and civil society groups over the removal of fuel subsidy has risen to about 600. The ICRC also said its volunteers under the aegis of the Nigeria Red Cross had also provided basic health services to the over 4,000 persons temporarily displaced by the violence that attended the fuel subsidy removal protest in Benin City.
The organisation stated it had evacuated the protesters seriously injured to nearby hospitals for adequate treatment, adding that since the strike commenced, the ICRS had dispatched dressing kits and other first aid materials to its branches in Kano, Yobe, Borno, Gombe and Adamawa states.

The Deputy Head of the ICRS delegation in Nigeria, Mamadou Sow said this in the organisation’s bulletin entitled ‘Nigeria: Responding to Multiple Situations of Violence’ which was made available to our correspondent in Kaduna on Saturday.

Sow stated that most of the injured persons were Nigerians protesting against the fuel subsidy removal in Kano, Benin and Lagos.

He added that due to the strike, ICRC volunteers had to assist in administering treatment to injured protesters in three hospitals experiencing shortage of health care workers in Kano.

The ICRC deputy head of delegation said following the clashes between security forces and the deadly Boko Haram, as well as the increasing wave of terrorist bombings in the North, the organisation had, late last year and early January, provided support for hospitals and health care facilities in four of the most affected states and the Federal Capital Territory.

He said, “Last year, the ICRC trained over 600 volunteers from eight of the states prone to violence in the administration of first aid while over 700 persons injured during various ethno-religious and political violence were given first aid treatment.

“About 1,900 persons drawn from 62 communities across areas prone to violence were trained in first aid administration. The ICRC also offered assistance to over 25,000 persons displaced and fleeing from Kano, Kaduna and Bauchi states as a result of the violence that broke out over the results of the April 2011 presidential election.”






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