By David Odama
The International Committee for Red Cross, ICRC, said it has loss so many health workers arising from increase violence especially in the North Eastern part of the country.
Omoruyi Daniel Edobor, the First Aid and Pre-hospital Care Field Officer of ICRC who stated this while exchanging views with Journalists at the sideline of a three day workshop on various methods of first aid treatment and drill training, said health workers were often helpless during conflicts.
The Pre-hospital Care Field Officer has stated further that increasing violence against health workers and volunteers in conflict during conflict situations in parts of the country was becoming worrisome saying that something urgent needed to be done to remedy trend.
According to Edobor, many health workers have been injured, killed during conflicts in the northeast while others were facing difficult situations parts of the country.
“We have lost numbers of healthcare workers, Red Cross volunteers and other welfare workers in conflict situations in their line of duties in Nigeria.
“Many of our workers are attacked by armed opposition groups. These workers are harassed, and some are kidnapped during rescue efforts to help survivors.
“We’ve lost many in the northeast. Our workers ought to be safeguarded during conflicts as provided for in many international conventions,” Edobor declared.
He admonished media practitioners to be abreast of appropriate international best practices for first aid treatment in order to help disseminate and impact adequate knowledge on Nigwrians.
He said exposing them to skills in various first aid treatments methods would help in evacuating injured victims from accident scenes to secure and safe environments before accessing the nearest medical facility for adequate attention.