originally published in the New York Times, United States
Most of Burundi’s doctors have gone on a nationwide strike after demands for salary increases have gone unresolved for months. Though some nurses and doctors remained in infirmaries on Monday, virtually all major hospitals were empty of physicians, according to a spokesman of one of the two doctors’ unions. Burundi’s 238 doctors, who serve more than 8 million people, earn an average of $100 a month. They have asked for a sixfold increase. President Pierre Nkurunziza has accused them of politicizing the pay dispute before elections scheduled for next year and betraying the Hippocratic Oath.
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