Nigeria: Questions Surround Unexplained Kano Deaths
Nigerian authorities are baffled by the mysterious deaths of over 150 people in Kano state in recent weeks.
Reports from the northern region claim that the number of deceased buried in three different cemeteries has increased in the past week alone.
The trend has many worried that the deaths are the result of the coronavirus (COVID-19), which has raised fears across the western African nation.
Local undertakers – who have now taken on grave-digging duties – say that the number of bodies they have received is unusual. Attendants of the burials say they are frightened, and are asking the government to intervene as a matter of urgency.
The same call was echoed by Nigeria’s former minister of aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, in a post on Twitter.
On Tuesday, 21 April, he tweeted: “If something is not done quickly by President Muhammadu Buhari, hundreds of thousands of people, particularly the elderly, will begin to die of COVID-19 and related diseases.”
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control has confirmed 873 ongoing cases of COVID-19, with 197 recoveries and 28 casualties.
