War on Gaza: Tinubu calls for immediate ceasefire, peaceful resolution
Airstrikes on school kill 50, as death toll tops 11,000 21 hospitals out of service in Gaza Strip
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has renewed Nigeria’s call for an immediate ceasefire and the pursuit of a peaceful resolution to the current situation in the Middle East, particularly in Palestine.
The president stated this yesterday while speaking at the Saudi-Africa Summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Speaking at the summit, Tinubu, who assured potential investors that their investments were safe in Nigeria, said the country was ready for business, while reassuring them of some of the world’s highest returns on investment.
The president stated that Nigeria was desirous of enhancing collaboration with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on combating terrorist organisations, such as Boko Haram, ISWAP and other violent extremist groups, which had been terrorising Lake Chad and Sahel regions.
“Nigeria, like Saudi Arabia, is diversifying her economy away from oil dependence to promote sustainable development. My administration has undertaken bold economic reforms by removing wasteful subsidies on petroleum and the merging of our foreign exchange market, among other incentives aimed at improving the ease of doing business in Nigeria,” the president noted in a statement by his spokesman, Ajuri Ngelale.
President Tinubu thanked the Kingdom for the various humanitarian interventions in Nigeria through the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre.
Airstrikes on school kill 50, as death toll tops 11,000
The head of Al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza Strip has described Friday’s attacks against his hospital and several others as a “day of war against hospitals,” adding that it was “tragic in every sense of the word.”
Muhammad Abu Salmiya told Al Jazeera that the sick and wounded occupied all the hospital’s corridors and they could not perform surgical operations.
“We cannot find a single bed to place victims on. We are taking difficult decisions between who to save and who to let die. As I speak to you, I am standing in front of 100 dead bodies,” he said.
Abu Salmiya said only four sections of the hospital were still operatin: the intensive care unit, the baby incubator unit, the operation theatre and dialysis unit.
“These wards cannot function without electricity. We are in dire need of fuel to keep these critical units operating. Thousands of patients’ lives are hanging by a thread. This is a war crime,” he added.
The director added that the thousands of displaced people living inside the hospital were without food or water, and the fear is that Israel would bomb the hospital and destroy it.
Gaza health system ‘reaches point of no return’
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is calling for the “immediate protection of all civilians, including humanitarian workers and medical personnel” in Gaza, warning that the besieged enclave’s health system has collapsed.
Meanwhile, as the war on Gaza enters day 35, its health ministry said the number of Palestinians killed since October 7 had risen to 11,078, including at least 4,506 children.