Cholera kills 15 in western Ethiopia: health official

A cholera outbreak in western Ethiopia has killed 15 people and struck more than 200 people this month, a regional health official said Friday, appealing for more medicine. (AFP/File)
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Updated 21 February 2025
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Cholera kills 15 in western Ethiopia: health official

  • “Fifteen people have died, and we have 234 cases since the beginning of February,” said Gillo
  • “The situation is not yet under control and we don’t have enough medication currently”

ADDIS ABABA: A cholera outbreak in western Ethiopia has killed 15 people and struck more than 200 people this month, a regional health official said Friday, appealing for more medicine.
Several regions of Ethiopia and other African countries have been fighting cholera outbreaks in recent weeks, including Sudan and Angola.
“Fifteen people have died, and we have 234 cases since the beginning of February,” Nigiw Gillo, an emergencies manager in the Gambella region health bureau, told AFP.
“The situation is not yet under control and we don’t have enough medication currently, and we are asking our partners to provide.”
Cholera causes severe diarrhea, vomiting and muscle cramps, and is generally contracted by eating or drinking food or water that is contaminated with the bacterium, according to the World Health Organization.
It said the number of reported cholera cases rose by 13 percent in 2023 from a year earlier, with deaths from the disease surging by more than 70 percent.
Cholera killed 4,000 people in 2024, despite being “preventable and easily treatable,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said last year.


French police raid Arab World Institute in Paris as Epstein fallout widens

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French police raid Arab World Institute in Paris as Epstein fallout widens

PARIS: French police searched the Arab World Institute in Paris on Monday as part of a probe into its former head, ex-culture minister Jack Lang, and his links to late convicted US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, prosecutors said.
France’s National Financial Prosecutor (PNF) said in a statement that the Arab World Institute ‌was among several locations ‌being raided.
Prosecutors this month opened ​a ‌preliminary ⁠investigation ​of Lang and ⁠his daughter Caroline on suspicion of tax fraud following the release of documents on Epstein in the US
Lang, who was culture minister under late Socialist president Francois Mitterrand, resigned this month from the Arab World Institute, which he had led since 2013.
He has said he ⁠was unaware of Epstein’s crimes despite corresponding ‌with him between 2012 and ‌2019, 11 years after the financier ​was convicted of soliciting ‌prostitution from an underage girl. Epstein died in prison ‌by suicide in 2019.
The Institute, which is overseen by France’s foreign ministry, said it could not immediately comment on the police action.
Both Jack and Caroline Lang have repeatedly denied any wrongdoing ‌and receiving financial benefits from Epstein. Their lawyer Laurent Merlet told French broadcaster BFMTV ⁠this month that “there ⁠was no movement of funds.”
Fallout from the release of millions of new documents related to Epstein has rippled through Europe.
On Saturday, Paris prosecutors set up a dedicated team to review the files, coordinating with the financial prosecutor and national police.
The office said it was analizing several potential cases stemming from the Epstein files.
One concerns French diplomat Fabrice Aidan, alleged to have transferred United Nations documents to Epstein.
Aidan, who worked at the UN from ​July 2006 to ​April 2013, has rejected the accusations through his lawyer.