ZAMBIAN riot police on Thursday broke up a demonstration by hundreds of protesters demanding the reinstatement of more than 300 junior doctors sacked for going on strike. The demonstration took place in the Copperbelt town of Kitwe some 400km from the capital Lusaka. The government fired the doctors for going on strike to demand better conditions of service and the provision of drugs in the run-down public hospitals. Meanwhile, senior doctors pressing for the reinstatement of their junior colleagues continued a work stoppage begun Saturday. “The situation is bad in the hospitals. People are dying every day because there are no doctors to attend to them,” Nsama Sikazwe, spokesman for senior doctors said. He said all 42 senior doctors in the country had decided on an indefinite work stoppage until the government meets their demands. The doctors would meet later on Thursday with lawyers who had been instructed to begin proceedings to declare a legal strike, he said.
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