The mystery sickness bringing death and dismay to eastern Ethiopia

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/feb/20/the-mystery-sickness-bringing-death-and-dismay-to-eastern-ethiopia

As villagers in Somali region fall ill in unexplained circumstances, some locals fear gas exploration has tainted the local water supply

Poly-GCL, a partly state-owned Chinese company, has been prospecting for oil and gas in the Ogaden Basin, as the vicinity is known, since 2014. Calub, roughly 500km south-east of Jigjiga and near neighbouring Somalia, is due to start commercial gas production soon.

Khadar, like many from the area, is suspicious that the sickness is caused by hazardous chemical waste that has poisoned the water supply.

“It is the toxins that flow in the rainfall from Calub [gas field] that are responsible for this epidemic,” said Khadar, as he sat outdoors in the eastern Ethiopian city of Jigjiga.