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Police block protesting doctors in Zambia

POLICE blocked a protest by doctors in Zambia today as they demanded a meeting with President Hakainde Hichilema over a lack of jobs in the African country.

They were surrounded by security officials in the capital Lusaka as they marched towards the presidential palace.

One of the medics, Wallace Ndumba, told Zambia’s Diamond television that they would stop working in a voluntary capacity because of the government’s failure to stick to promises over paid employment.

More than 800 doctors in Zambia are unemployed and Resident Doctors Association of Zambia spokesman Dr Chifuka Phiri said that they wanted a clear roadmap to employment.

Zambia’s Minister of Health Sylvia Masebo said that the recruitment of 11,200 medics will begin in March. 

Despite the assurances, not one doctor has been employed, Dr Phiri said, stressing that many medics have been working without pay for more than a year.

Government spokesman Professor Luckson Kasonka called for patience as he said that recruitment of health workers would be carried out systematically.

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