Hospital evacuate babies after Malawi police teargas spray to protestors

August 6, 2019 Wanga Gwede - Nyasa Times 2 Comments

A nursery ward for premature babies at Bwaila Hospital in the capital Lilongwe was forced to be evacuated after teargas which police sprayed at protesters filled the ward.

Babies their mothers seated in the hospital’s corridor waiting for the gas to clear

The babies and their terrified mothers were seeking refuge in the hospital’s corridor waiting for the teargas to clear.

Police fired teargas as thousands of people gathered in the streets in fresh rounds of demonstrations to demand the resignation of Jane Ansah, the chairperson of the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC), whom they accuse of overseeing a fraudulent election in May which saw President Peter Mutharika re-elected.

The results of presidential elections have sparked four previous demonstrations and is being challenged in court by the opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and the UTM party.

Previous protests have turned violent and the government has said the police lack the capacity to manage them.

Attorney General Kalekeni Kaphale sought to bar Tuesday’s demonstrations on the grounds that they were a security threat and infringed other citizens’ rights to work, but the high court judge Kenyatta Nyirenda in the capital Lilongwe ruled they could go ahead.

Protesters had to set a police armoured vehicle alight after the security forces had fired tear gas at them in an apparent attempt to stop them from marching.

Timothy Mtambo, chair of the Human Rights Defenders’ Coalition, which is organising the latest demonstrations, accused the police of provoking the situation when people wanted to exercise their right to protest peacefully.

Mtambo said they will not relent with the protest until Ansah, a judge at Supreme Court of Malawi, resigns together with her commissioners.

MEC declared Mutharika, the leader of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), the winner of the May 21 election with 38.6% support in the “first past the post” race.

Lazarus Chakwera, who heads the MCP, was said to have secured 35.4% backing. UTM leader Saulos Chilima, who was Mutharika’s deputy in the previous administration but quit last year in protest at the government’s perceived failure to clamp down on graft, won 20.2%.

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Hospital evacuate babies after Malawi police teargas spray to protestors

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