U.N. Secretary General condemns violence against health workers in Nigeria

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday "strongly condemned the killing in north-eastern Nigeria of three doctors from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, calling the attack and other recent incidents of violence against health workers 'unacceptable,'" the U.N. News Centre reports (2/11). "Those killings came quickly after gunmen shot dead at least nine female polio vaccinators Friday in Kano, the most populous city of Nigeria's predominantly Muslim north," the Associated Press/Washington Post writes, adding, "The U.N. chief said these acts of 'outrageous violence' ... could have devastating effects in the fight to improve the health of people everywhere, [U.N. spokesperson Martin Nesirky] said."

"These recent attacks in northern Nigeria show the changing tactics of Islamic extremists here and continuing dangers facing Africa's most populous nation, despite a buildup of soldiers and police officers, door-to-door searches by security forces and mass arrests," the news service notes (2/11). "Police in northern Nigeria say they've arrested three radio journalists over the killings of at least nine female polio vaccinators, saying their on-air discussion about rumors around the vaccine sparked the attack," the AP reports in a separate article, adding, "Kano state police commissioner Ibrahim Idris said Tuesday that the journalists, who work for Wazobia FM, will be charged with culpable homicide over the killings Friday" (Rabiu, 2/12).