News in Brief
RABAT:
It’s a reverse migrant crisis: Moroccan workers trapped in Spain are begging their own government to let them come back home.
Construction worker Mohammed Benali is among hundreds of Moroccans who headed to their jobs in Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta one day in March thinking they’d be home for dinner — but instead they found themselves trapped for more than two months by Morocco’s abrupt and unusually strict border closures to keep out the virus.
They have slept in a parking lot, gyms, mosques, churches or with generous employers. One stranded woman gave birth. A few were so desperate they jumped into the Mediterranean Sea to swim home.
At last, Morocco is starting to allow them back.
Benali, who reached Moroccan soil on Friday, was so shaken by the experience that he told The Associated Press: “I’ll never return to Ceuta again.” Others are still stuck, their return dates uncertain. (AP)
ISTANBUL:
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and U.S. President Donald Trump spoke Saturday on the phone to discuss the coronavirus pandemic, bilateral relations and regional developments.
According to an account of the phone call released by Erdogan’s office, the two leaders reiterated their solidarity in the fight against COVID-19.
They also discussed developments in Libya and Syria, agreeing to continue “close political and military cooperation” for regional stability, the statement said.
For its part, the White House said that the two leaders “discussed progress on reopening and boosting global economies in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.”
President Trump also “reiterated concern over worsening foreign interference in Libya and the need for rapid de-escalation” and the presidents “reaffirmed the urgent need for a political resolution to the conflict in Syria, as well as unimpeded humanitarian access throughout the country,” a White House statement said. (AP)
ISTANBUL:
Turkey’s health minister announced 29 new deaths from COVID-19, bringing the death toll to 4,369.
Fahrettin Koca also tweeted Monday that 987 new infections were confirmed in the past 24 hours. The total number of infections has reached 157,814.
More than 120,000 people have recovered and people needing intensive care continued on a downward trend, according to the health ministry statistics. The ministry has said its treatment protocol includes the early use of antivirals hydroxychloroquin and favipiravir, as well as the antibiotic azithromycin, along with high frequency oxygen.
The World Health Organization on Monday said it was temporarily dropping hydroxychloroquin — the anti-malarial drug US President Trump is taking — from its global study into experimental COVID-19 treatments to review its safety. (AP)
ADEN:
At a cemetery in Yemen’s largest southern city, dozens of fresh graves were a testament to a spike in deaths amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The cemetery workers who bury them don’t know what killed the newly deceased. But there’s no denying that there’s been an increasing number of people getting sick in the port city of Aden — likely from the coronavirus.
Many are buried with few precautions and only a small number of attendees. Workers wear masks or cover their faces with a cloth.
Mohammed Ebeid, a gravedigger in Aden, said there’s been five times the normal traffic, with 51 burials in the last week at the cemetery where he works. (AP)
ADEN:
Yemeni health authorities on Monday reported 11 new infections with the novel coronavirus (Covid-19), taking the overall count up to 233.
Of the latest cases, four came from Aden, four from Taez and three from Lahj, the health authorities said in a press statement.
They also confirmed a fresh fatality due to the globally spreading virus, raising the death toll to 44 since the outbreak of the deadly bug in the country. (KUNA)