Hi there,

The climate crisis, war, attacks on reproductive rights, book bans—these threats aren't looming. They are here now. If you think Democracy Now!'s reporting on these issues is essential, please sign up for a monthly gift of $10 or more. Right now, a generous donor will TRIPLE your gift, making your donation 3x as valuable. We don't have a paywall or run ads, which means we’re not brought to you by the oil, gas, coal, or nuclear companies when we cover the climate catastrophe or by the weapons manufacturers when we cover war. Democracy Now! is funded by you and that’s why we need your help today. This is a challenging year for news organizations and nonprofits across the board, so please don’t close this window before making your gift. We're counting on you more than ever to sustain our reporting. Start your monthly donation of $10 or more right now and help Democracy Now! stay strong and independent all year round. Thank you so much.
-Amy Goodman

Non-commercial news needs your support.

We rely on contributions from you, our viewers and listeners to do our work. If you visit us daily or weekly or even just once a month, now is a great time to make your monthly contribution.

Please do your part today.

Donate

Ethiopia to Release Prisoners over COVID-19 Fears, as South Africa Locks Down

HeadlineMar 27, 2020

In Africa, Ethiopia’s president has released over 4,000 prisoners in an effort to prevent overcrowding in prisons and contain the spread of the coronavirus. This comes as Ethiopians are calling on their government to lift months-long internet shutdowns in parts of Ethiopia where government forces have clashed with an Oromo separatist group. The blackout has left millions unable to access information about the pandemic.

In South Africa, which began a three-week nationwide lockdown today, two COVID-19 deaths have been reported among more than 900 confirmed cases.

Meanwhile, Egyptian authorities have expelled Guardian journalist Ruth Michaelson after she reported that Egypt has far more coronavirus cases than have been officially reported.

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top