Anjouan doctors strike over “deplorable” conditions

Public hospital doctors on the separatist island of Anjouan went on strike to protest against “deplorable conditions” of life and work, a strike organiser said on Friday. An AFP report quoted Dr Ahmed Abdallah as saying that the work stoppage which began on Thursday was expected to last until Sunday. However, he warned that if doctors’ demands were not met by then, an open-ended strike would begin next Wednesday, the report said. “If our claims are not met, we will start an unlimited strike as from 19 September,” Abdallah was quoted as saying, adding that private clinics “will be closed”.

The doctors’ specific grievances were not immediately clear, but public hospitals and clinics remained largely unoperational on Friday, the report said. The island of Anjouan, which proclaimed its autonomy from the main island in 1997, has been grappling with the economic consequences of a long-running isolation by an Organisation of African Unity (OAU) embargo, according to the report. The implementation of a reconciliation accord reached in February this year had largely been moribund, it added.

Five weeks ago, on 9 August, Anjouan’s separatist leader, Said Abeid Abderemane, was toppled and military majors backed by a commission of junior officers took over, the report said.