Burundi: Health services paralysed as nurses' strike continues

Services in public hospitals across Burundi continued to be paralysed as an indefinite strike by nurses entered its fifth day on Friday. The nurses are demanding better pay and working conditions. Although nurses have been reporting for duty at most hospitals in Bujumbura, Burundi's capital, they have not been working as normal. "We are working as we would on weekends or on holidays," Melance Hakizimana, chairman of the nurses' trade union, le Syndicat National de Travailleurs de la Sante, told IRIN on Wednesday.