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Nepal facing ‘medical crisis’ amid shortage

Friday, 20 November 2015 9:32 AM [ Last Update: Friday, 20 November 2015 9:32 AM ]

Burnt packages of medicine are seen in the back of a truck, which was torched by protesters, in Birgunj, a Nepalese town bordering India, November 20, 2015. (Photo by AFP)

Nepal is facing a medical crisis as the Madhesi ethnic protesters have kept the main border crossing with India blocked over the past few months.

Truckloads of medicine have been blocked at the main border crossing by Madhesi, said Mukti Ram Shrestha of the Nepal Medical Association on Thursday.

“If the situation of shortages continues, patients could start dying after two weeks,” the official stated.

The landlocked country is heavily dependent on neighboring India for most of its medicine and fuel.

On Friday, protesters in the southern border town of Birgunj threw a petrol bomb on a truck loaded with locally-produced medicines worth about USD 20,000, despite an earlier promise that medical supplies would be allowed through.

There were no casualties, but local police said most of the medicines had been destroyed.

Shrestha added that Indian authorities were not allowing the much needed shipments to move across even at border points where there are no protests.

The restrictions are prompting fuel rationing and forcing the government to start selling firewood as residents run out of cooking gas.

Medicine ‘stranded at the border’

The Nepal Chemists and Druggists Association says about 350 cargo trucks carrying medicines are stranded at the border.

“We are suffering from a shortage of imported life-saving injections and vaccines,” said Mrigendra Shrestha, the president of the association.

“Medicines are crucial. We are now trying to airlift emergency supplies.”

Demonstrators from the Madhesi ethnic minority have been blockading the main Birgunj border crossing since protests against a new constitution broke out in late September.

The Madhesi claim the new constitution leaves them politically marginalized.

Nepal’s government, however, accuses India, which has criticized the new constitution, of retaliating with an “unofficial blockade.” New Delhi denies the accusation.