Residents in Ethiopia are bleeding from their mouths and noses before they die due to a mystery sickness.
The unknown sickness has been blamed on toxic waste from Chinese oil drilling and has allegedly spread through villages near the project in Somali.
The sickness turns victims’ eyes yellow. It also causes fever, yellowing palms, sleeplessness, lack of appetite, swelling of the body, and ultimately death.
But officials in Addis Ababa denied allegations of an environmental and health crisis, according to the Guardian.
Many are suspicious that the sickness is caused by chemical waste poisoning the water supply.
Khadar Abdi Abdullahi, one of the residents, said: “It is the toxins that flow in the rainfall from Calub [gas field] that are responsible for this epidemic.”
The 23-year-old was discharged from hospital after he was told by doctors that there was nothing more they could do. He later passed away.
According to an adviser to the Somali regional government, “new diseases that have never been before in this area” are present.
“Without any public health protection, it is very clear that POLY-GCL uses chemicals that are detrimental to human health.”
The POLY-GCL Petroleum Investments of China last year confirmed plans to construct a 767-km Ethiopia to Djibouti natural gas pipeline for transporting gas from Ethiopia to a terminal in the Red Sea.
Extensive gas deposits in the Ogaden Basin have been found.
After the production sharing deal was signed in 2013, POLY-GCL has been developing the Hilala and Calub fields.
One former Chinese engineer claimed there had been spillages of drilling fluids over the years he worked onsite in Calub while another alleged “those indigenous to the land die from raw toxins spilled out of sheer carelessness. Operational companies in Calub have forfeited their duty to protect local people.”
The director of licensing at the federal ministry of petroleum and mines, Ketsela Tadesse, said that “all the gas wells at Calub and elsewhere in the Ogaden Basin, are sealed, safe and secured … according to international standards.”
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Replaced!