demonstration

Ecuador doctors protest crisis as patients bring own meds to surgery

  • He said there are long waiting lists for people who need emergency operations and "patients buy what they need to undergo surgery."
  • Dozens of doctors, nurses and patients protested Wednesday outside a hospital in Ecuador's capital, expressing outrage at a health care system so overstretched that people undergoing surgery bring their own syringes and medication. 
  • He said there are long waiting lists for people who need emergency operations and "patients buy what they need to undergo surgery."
Dozens of doctors, nurses and patients protested Wednesday outside a hospital in Ecuador's capital, expressing outrage at a health care system so overstretched that people undergoing surgery bring their own syringes and medication. 
One big source of anger is that last week the health ministry announced an unspecified number of dismissals from the state health care system, arguing that it needed to "optimize resources" after detecting cases of suspected overstaffing.
The Ecuadoran Medical Federation, a doctors' association, said as many as 1,200 doctors, nurses and administrative staffers were let go. The association vowed to hold nationwide protests against the health care crisis.
"We do not have what we need to work," said Juan Barriga, head of trauma treatment at Pablo Arturo Suarez Hospital, where the rally took place.
He said there are long waiting lists for people who need emergency operations and "patients buy what they need to undergo surgery."
Indeed, in Ecuador patients are known to bring their own medication, needles, suture thread and other equipment when they go to the hospital.
The dismissals will also affect health care at Ecuador's violent and overcrowded prisons, where a tuberculosis outbreak has been reported.
Outside the Quito hospital, doctors in white lab coats, nurses in uniform, patients and relatives carried signs with slogans such as "there are no supplies. No medicine, the health care system is collapsing."
Barriga said that at his hospital alone, one of the most important of the state health care system in Quito, more than 1,000 people are on a list waiting for surgery.
President Daniel Noba, a conservative in power since 2023 and staunch ally of US President Donald Trump, appointed his sixth health minister on Monday.
sp/dg/dw/des

distribution

Mideast war weighs on parent of Durex condoms

  • "Modelling a scenario of oil at $110 a barrel for the remainder of 2026 indicates a £130 million to £150 million gross impact on our input cost base... which we see as a manageable level," it said.
  • Reckitt Benckiser, the British supplier of health and hygiene products including Durex condoms, said Wednesday that soaring oil prices caused by the Middle East war could cost it up to £150 million ($203 million).
  • "Modelling a scenario of oil at $110 a barrel for the remainder of 2026 indicates a £130 million to £150 million gross impact on our input cost base... which we see as a manageable level," it said.
Reckitt Benckiser, the British supplier of health and hygiene products including Durex condoms, said Wednesday that soaring oil prices caused by the Middle East war could cost it up to £150 million ($203 million).
Reckitt, whose brands also include Dettol surface cleaner and Nurofen painkillers, revealed the fallout in a first-quarter trading update.
"Modelling a scenario of oil at $110 a barrel for the remainder of 2026 indicates a £130 million to £150 million gross impact on our input cost base... which we see as a manageable level," it said.
Petrochemical-linked materials including ammonia, ethanol and silicone oil are used in the making and packaging of condoms, according to Bloomberg News.
The financial newswire added in a report Wednesday that the Malaysian company Karex, which makes 20 percent of the world's condoms, including for Durex, is preparing to raise its prices by up to 30 percent because of the war's impact. 
bcp/ajb/js

treatment

New drugs raise hopes of pancreatic cancer breakthrough

BY JULIEN DURY

  • Meanwhile, other researchers have been exploring alternative ways to extend the lives of pancreatic cancer patients.
  • After decades of struggling to find a way to treat pancreatic cancer, researchers have developed several promising new drugs that could offer rare hope to patients given this particularly deadly diagnosis.
  • Meanwhile, other researchers have been exploring alternative ways to extend the lives of pancreatic cancer patients.
After decades of struggling to find a way to treat pancreatic cancer, researchers have developed several promising new drugs that could offer rare hope to patients given this particularly deadly diagnosis.
Pancreatic cancer is notoriously aggressive, with only roughly one in 10 people surviving more than five years after being diagnosed, research has shown.
Rates of this cancer have also been surging worldwide, notably among young adults. It is projected to become the second deadliest cancer, after lung cancer, in developed countries in the coming years. 
Despite the scale of this scourge, there has not been "any medical progress for 40 years," Patrick Mehlen, a researcher at France's Leon Berard cancer centre, told AFP.
But more funding and interest over the last decade has finally been making a "real difference," he added.
While a cure is still a long way off for most patients, some of these new drugs could add precious months to their lifespan.
The most widely celebrated news came last week, when US pharma firm Revolution Medicines announced positive results for its experimental drug daraxonrasib.
The drug targets a protein called KRAS which is known to play an important role in tumour growth. 
Half of the patients taking the pill survived more than 13 months -- twice as long as a control group receiving chemotherapy.
This may not sound revolutionary, but for a cancer that kills so quickly, doubling the life expectancy of patients is unprecedented. 

 'Heck of a lot better'

One high-profile patient has spoken out about just what a difference the drug can make.
Ben Sasse, a former senator from the US state of Nebraska, started taking daraxonrasib after being diagnosed with metastasised, stage-four pancreatic cancer late last year.
"In mid-December I got a three-to-four month life expectancy," the 54-year-old told the New York Times.
After taking the drug, "I'm doing a heck of a lot better than I was doing at Christmas," Sasse said.
He added that it was "a nasty drug", pointing to severe side effects that left his face peeling and bloody.
Revolution Medicines has said it will soon apply for its treatment to be approved in the United States. More detailed results about the phase 3 trial will be presented at the ASCO cancer conference in Chicago next month.
Meanwhile, other researchers have been exploring alternative ways to extend the lives of pancreatic cancer patients.
Early trial results, published in the journal Nature on Wednesday, tested a treatment that is not designed to directly eradicate tumours.
Instead, it aims to prevent cancerous cells from starting a process that makes them resistant to other drugs -- including chemotherapy.
The NP137 antibody was tested on 43 patients receiving chemo whose cancer had spread through their pancreas, but not to other parts of their body.
Compared to normal survival rates, the patients lived several months longer, according to the phase 1b trial.
"We're giving people an average of six months more -- which is significant for this disease," said Mehlen, who supervised the research.
The team plans to conduct another trial with a larger sample size and a control group later this year.
Ultimately, Mehlen hopes his drug will not just extend the lives of people receiving chemotherapy, but also daraxonrasib.

New cancer vaccine

Promising early trial results were also announced over the weekend for an experimental pancreatic cancer vaccine. 
The vaccine, which uses the messenger RNA technology that came to prominence during the Covid-19 pandemic, was developed by pharma firms BioNTech and Genentech.
During the phase 1 trial, 16 patients who already had pancreatic cancer were given the shot.
It promoted immune cells to target cancerous cells in eight of the patients, seven of whom were still alive six years later. 
Out of the eight patients whose immune systems did not respond to the vaccine, just two survived that long.
Phase 1 trials are designed to determine whether drugs are safe, not demonstrate they are effective, so more research is planned.
jdy/dl/yad

phones

One month phone-free: Young Americans try digital detox

BY ULYSSE BELLIER

  • She can now navigate her neighborhood without relying on Google Maps, has deleted Instagram and launched her own digital sobriety group.
  • Getting around without Google Maps.
  • She can now navigate her neighborhood without relying on Google Maps, has deleted Instagram and launched her own digital sobriety group.
Getting around without Google Maps. No longer scrolling Instagram at the bus stop. Ditching your headphones to hear the birds sing.
In March, a group of 20- and 30-somethings in the US capital swapped their smartphones for basic flip phones and embarked on a one-month digital detox, part of an emerging movement of young Americans seeking to break free from the harmful effects of social media.
"I was waiting for a bus, and I didn't know when it would come," recalled Jay West, 29, who took part in the Month Offline challenge organized by a small startup with support from a local community group.
Old habits die hard, and West, who works as a data analyst for Washington's metro system, said he would often find himself reaching into his pocket for his cell phone, only to realize there was nothing on it. 
But in the end, he said, it was liberating.
"I was bored sometimes, and that's okay," West recalled one recent evening at a city community garden where detox participants met to share their struggles and joys of disconnecting. "It's okay to be bored."
Sitting beside him was Rachael Schultz, 35, who had to ask strangers on bicycles for directions. There was also Lizzie Benjamin, 25, who dug out old CDs her father had burned so she could listen to music without Spotify.
Before the detox, Bobby Loomis, 25, who works in real estate, struggled to watch even a single episode of a TV series without checking his phone.
But now, without his headphones, he enjoyed listening to birds sing as he took walks around Washington. And when the detox ended, his daily screen time dropped from six to four hours, roughly in line with the average for American adults.
— 'Enriching, communal, social life' —
Scientists have long been sounding the alarm, warning that cell phone addiction is associated with shortened attention spans, sleep problems and anxiety.
In a landmark ruling in late March, a California court ruled Instagram and YouTube are liable for the addictive nature of their platforms.
An increasing number of young Americans are finally taking note. According to a YouGov poll conducted last year, more than two-thirds of people aged 18 to 29 would like to reduce their screen time.
And new tools are available to make that happen: digital detox apps, phone-blocking gadgets, and groups, such as the one in Washington, that facilitate month-long detoxes. On university campuses, weeks-long social media diets have become popular and screen-free evenings among friends have become a thing in big cities.
Going smartphone-free even for a couple of weeks leads to "better well-being and improved ability to sustain attention," said Kostadin Kushlev, a psychology researcher at Georgetown University.
Preliminary studies suggest those effects persist over time, he added.
Josh Morin, one of the organizers of the detox programs in Washington, believes that simply ditching the phone is not enough and that an appealing alternative is vital. His program involves a weekly discussion session for participants held at a karaoke bar in a trendy neighborhood of the US capital.
"In order to actually break that, you have to provide an enriching, communal, social life," said Morin.
— 'At the beginning of something' —
The Month Offline initiative was launched a year ago by a company called Dumb.co. It costs about $100 per person to participate and the fee covers the loan of a flip phone pre-loaded with a handful of essential tools, such as phone calls, texts and Uber, that are synchronized with the user's smartphone.
So far the startup has been making baby steps, hoping to surpass the 1,000-user mark in May, but experts see a bigger trend.
Graham Burnett, a history professor at Princeton University, sees "the dawning of an authentic movement," similar to the birth of the environmental movement in the 1960s, which led to landmark environmental protections.
Kendall Schrohe, 23, who works at a digital privacy watchdog, completed the monthly detox in Washington in January.
She can now navigate her neighborhood without relying on Google Maps, has deleted Instagram and launched her own digital sobriety group.
"I take an optimistic lens, and I feel like we're really at the beginning of something," she said.
ube/ev/md/sla

trial

Maradona's daughter slams 'manipulation' of family by his doctors

  • She was testifying at the trial of Maradona's seven-person medical team, which is accused of gross negligence over the death of the Argentine football legend at the age of 60.
  • Diego Maradona's daughter Gianinna on Tuesday testified about what she called the "total manipulation" of the late player's family by doctors in the lead-up to his 2020 death.
  • She was testifying at the trial of Maradona's seven-person medical team, which is accused of gross negligence over the death of the Argentine football legend at the age of 60.
Diego Maradona's daughter Gianinna on Tuesday testified about what she called the "total manipulation" of the late player's family by doctors in the lead-up to his 2020 death.
She was testifying at the trial of Maradona's seven-person medical team, which is accused of gross negligence over the death of the Argentine football legend at the age of 60.
"The manipulation was total and horrible," Gianinna told the court in the northern Buenos Aires suburb of San Isidro, near where Maradona died while convalescing after surgery for a brain clot.
Gianinna said the medics convinced her and her siblings that their father could recuperate safely at his rented home in the suburb of Tigre.
She said the doctors presented this as a "serious" option and assured that his residence would be well equipped in medical terms.
"I trusted these three people, who only manipulated us and left my son without a grandfather," she added, referring to neurosurgeon Leopoldo Luque, psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov and nurse Carlos Diaz.
A key question at the heart of the trial is whether the decision to allow Maradona to convalesce at home instead of a medical facility endangered his life. 
"They (the medical team) were the ones guiding us, his children, on how to proceed," Gianinna stressed.
The accused argue that the hard-living star, who battled cocaine and alcohol addictions, died of natural causes.
Testifying for over 90 minutes, Gianinna fought back tears as she described racing to her father's bedside on the day of his death to be told by the ambulance service that there was "nothing they could do" to resuscitate him.
The defendants face prison terms of between eight and 25 years if convicted of homicide with possible intent -- pursuing a course of action despite knowing it could lead to death.
The larger-than-life star of the 1986 World Cup died of heart failure and acute pulmonary edema -- a condition where fluid accumulates in the lungs -- two weeks after the operation.
The passing of the man, who was idolized for his preternatural talent and charisma, plunged Argentina into mourning in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Tens of thousands of people defied social distancing rules to bid farewell to him as he lay in state at the presidential palace.
The first trial over his death was annulled last year following revelations that one of the judges took part in a clandestine documentary about the case.
A second trial, conducted by a new panel of judges, began last week. It is expected to last at least three months.
mry-pbl/cb/mjf

food

Rat poison found in baby food jar in Austria as products recalled

  • HiPP said on Sunday that its "production, quality, and control processes are fully intact" and the incident "is in no way related to product quality or production".
  • Austrian police have found rat poison in a baby food jar in a probe that has seen the company HiPP recall the line over suspected tampering, with the firm stating on Sunday its production process was not to blame.
  • HiPP said on Sunday that its "production, quality, and control processes are fully intact" and the incident "is in no way related to product quality or production".
Austrian police have found rat poison in a baby food jar in a probe that has seen the company HiPP recall the line over suspected tampering, with the firm stating on Sunday its production process was not to blame.
The HiPP brand's German base announced the recall at SPAR supermarkets in Austria late Friday over the possibility that "a hazardous substance" was introduced into its "carrot with potato" puree through tampering.
As part of ongoing investigations in Germany, police have seized jars in Austria, as well as the Czech Republic and Slovakia, police in Austria's eastern Burgenland province said in a statement late Saturday.
"A sample of the seized product was examined on Saturday afternoon and tested positive for rat poison," they said.
HiPP said on Sunday that its "production, quality, and control processes are fully intact" and the incident "is in no way related to product quality or production".
"According to the current state of knowledge, as officially confirmed by the authorities, the case concerns only clearly defined sales channels," a HiPP spokesman told AFP.
"Products and distribution channels in Germany or other European countries that are not part of the investigation are not affected," he added.

Consumer warning

Austria's agency for food protection said on Saturday that rat poison may have been introduced as part of an extortion scheme.
Customers were asked not to consume the product, which can be identified by a white label with a red circle on the bottom of the jar, and instead return it to the store of purchase.
Czech police on Sunday on X also warned consumers.
The scare is the latest to hit the baby food market.
Since December, several manufacturers -- including European giants such as Nestle, Danone and Lactalis -- have issued recalls of infant formula in more than 60 countries that could be contaminated with the toxin cereulide.
Several infants who consumed powdered milk containing cereulide -- which can cause nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea -- have died, according to French authorities.
French prosecutors said in March the death of one baby in January "does not appear to be linked" to the infant's consumption of contaminated formula.
kas-frj-jza/rmb

fitness

Fit in fatigues: German army presses recruitment drive

BY CéLINE LE PRIOUX

  • Franz, a 31-year-old physiotherapist who declined to give his last name, set the day's record in the army booth's gas-masked fitness challenge, working his way through 50 jumping jacks, 20 squats, 10 press-ups and five burpees in just 46 seconds.
  • Wearing a gas mask, a young man performs a rapid series of push-ups, jumps and squats at the German military's recruiting booth at FIBO, the world's largest fitness expo, held in Cologne.
  • Franz, a 31-year-old physiotherapist who declined to give his last name, set the day's record in the army booth's gas-masked fitness challenge, working his way through 50 jumping jacks, 20 squats, 10 press-ups and five burpees in just 46 seconds.
Wearing a gas mask, a young man performs a rapid series of push-ups, jumps and squats at the German military's recruiting booth at FIBO, the world's largest fitness expo, held in Cologne.
Germany hopes to grow its armed forces, winning tens of thousands of new volunteers -- a tough task in a country where many young people view military service with scepticism.
To find new recruits, the Bundeswehr must rely on the power of persuasion, and sees the FIBO fair -- a celebration of bulging muscles and displays of sweaty stamina -- as a natural venue to win the soldiers of tomorrow.
"The target group is right here -- we rely on young, athletic, motivated people to join the service," the 30-year-old lieutenant commanding the booth, who gave his name only as Peter, told AFP.
"We can approach them very effectively here."
Franz, a 31-year-old physiotherapist who declined to give his last name, set the day's record in the army booth's gas-masked fitness challenge, working his way through 50 jumping jacks, 20 squats, 10 press-ups and five burpees in just 46 seconds.
Shortly after, he told AFP that he would be open to joining the army in coming years: "Being there to defend my country is definitely an option."
Chancellor Friedrich Merz has called for Germany to become Europe's leading conventional military power, part of a broader rearmament push by European NATO allies to deter a hostile Russia.
By 2035, Berlin has committed to increase its troop strength to 260,000 soldiers -- up from the current 185,000 -- and boost the reserves to another 200,000.
To achieve this, Berlin introduced a system this year to register 18-year-olds to identify potential new recruits -- but so far has refrained from bringing back mandatory military service, which was suspended in 2011.
Conscription is a sensitive subject in Germany, which has a strong pacificist streak often attributed to the horrors of the Nazi regime, and so the Bundeswehr is looking for other ways to win hearts, minds and recruits.

Obstacle courses, combat sports

The Bundeswehr stand at the fair dominated the middle of two bustling aisles packed with young men in athletic shorts and young women in leggings and sports bras.
Helping draw attention to the troops was an imposing Fennek armoured reconnaissance vehicle and a troop transporter, parked on either side of the booth.
"We've expanded even further compared to last year due to the success of our recruitment drive at FIBO," the lieutenant told AFP at the big stand, which was manned by 92 soldiers and staff.
With obstacle courses, combat demonstrations and daily raffles offering prizes like water bottles, mugs, T-shirts and backpacks -- all in military shades of sand and khaki -- the Bundeswehr is pulling out all the stops to attract new soldiers.
A banner advertised an upcoming "Olympix" event at the Bundeswehr's sports school in the western town of Warendorf, where young people aged 16 to 19 can compete in football, beach volleyball and combat sports.
"We've become more professional and more attractive" to potential recruits, Peter said of Germany's military, although he declined to provide specific recruiting figures from the FIBO stand.
Potential recruits often "need three or four contacts before deciding to pursue a career path or change professions," he added, comparing the decision-making process for signing up to making a major purchase.
Linda Reinhard -- a 33-year-old physiotherapist who had just completed a combat course at the training stand while wearing a 13-kilogramme (29-pound) vest -- said she thought the public perception of the Bundeswehr had improved in recent years.
"With everything that's happening in the world, the guys and girls here really contribute to making us feel safe," she said, although she is not considering putting on a uniform at the moment.
"I have a great job, I'm very happy, but I think they need good people here they can rely on," Reinhard said, adding that she was keeping an open mind to one day doing military service.
"Maybe that would be an alternative sometime in the future, why not?"
bur-bst/fz/rmb/jhb

regulation

Trump signs order to fast-track research on psychedelic drugs

  • While many are thought to show promising mental health benefits, there are risks.
  • US President Donald Trump on Saturday announced an easing of restrictions on research into psychedelic drugs -- such as so-called "magic mushrooms" -- that have shown promise in treating people with mental health conditions.
  • While many are thought to show promising mental health benefits, there are risks.
US President Donald Trump on Saturday announced an easing of restrictions on research into psychedelic drugs -- such as so-called "magic mushrooms" -- that have shown promise in treating people with mental health conditions.
Flanked by US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, top medical officials and podcaster Joe Rogan, who has pushed for access to the drugs, Trump signed an executive order that would help federal researchers cut through the red tape to allow for quicker studies.
The president said the order would "clear away unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles, improve data sharing among the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) and the Department of Veterans Affairs and facilitate fast rescheduling of any psychedelic drugs that become FDA approved."
Currently, many psychedelics including LSD and psilocybin ("magic mushrooms") are classified -- or "scheduled" -- as having high abuse and addiction potential, and are not approved for medical use, limiting the ability for scientists to study them.
If the FDA, which is charged with regulating pharmaceuticals in the United States, officially finds a medical benefit for some of the psychedelics, they could be rescheduled, allowing for greater clinical use.
The order only provides for accelerated research and does not immediately require law enforcement authorities to reclassify the drugs, meaning therapeutic use will not expand immediately.
In recent years, there has been a growing push to research the effects of the drugs in treating people -- especially war veterans -- with difficult anxiety and depression cases, especially those who had experienced traumatic stress.
Many veterans and other patients have complained that traditional antidepressant cocktails not only fail to work but change their personalities in ways that alienate them from their friends and family.
In 2023, 6,398 veterans took their own lives, the Department of Veterans Affairs said. 
During the signing ceremony at the White House, Trump pointed to one drug called ibogaine, claiming patients who had taken it "experienced an 80 to 90 percent reduction in symptoms of depression and anxiety within one month."
"Can I have some, please?" he joked.
The full extent of the benefits and potential side effects of psychedelic medications is not yet known, since research has been restricted. 
While many are thought to show promising mental health benefits, there are risks. Ibogaine, for instance, is thought to potentially damage the heart.
If you are a US veteran in need of help, or concerned about one, you can dial 988 and press 1, or visit www.veteranscrisisline.net.
pnb/sst

children

Genital mutilation: the silent suffering of Colombia's Indigenous girls

BY ALBA SANTANA

  • It does not, however, provide for midwives who flout the ban to be punished, with Indigenous leaders arguing that the women "lack information" about the dangers of FGM. It calls instead for a government-led awareness campaign to sensitize them to the suffering caused by the mutilation and to dispel myths about girls who are spared -- that they will grow up to be sexually promiscuous or even that their clitorises will grow into something resembling a penis.
  • Alejandrina Guasorna did not discover until adulthood that she had been subjected to female genital mutilation (FGM) the day she was born in a remote Indigenous community in Colombia's coffee-growing region.
  • It does not, however, provide for midwives who flout the ban to be punished, with Indigenous leaders arguing that the women "lack information" about the dangers of FGM. It calls instead for a government-led awareness campaign to sensitize them to the suffering caused by the mutilation and to dispel myths about girls who are spared -- that they will grow up to be sexually promiscuous or even that their clitorises will grow into something resembling a penis.
Alejandrina Guasorna did not discover until adulthood that she had been subjected to female genital mutilation (FGM) the day she was born in a remote Indigenous community in Colombia's coffee-growing region.
In the mountains of Risaralda, home to the Embera people, dozens of babies have their clitoris cut each year in a brutal practice based on traditional beliefs about the need to control girls' sexuality.
Some bleed to death or die of infections from unhealed wounds.
"We often saw dead baby girls. We thought it was normal," said Guasorna, a 74-year-old farm worker who has helped deliver babies in her own family but herself never performed genital cutting.
Colombia is the only Latin American country where female circumcision, believed to have been passed on to Indigenous groups by descendants of African slaves, is known to be still practiced.
Nearly two centuries after Colombia, which was a major hub in the South American slave trade, abolished slavery, a landmark ban on FGM is finally being debated by Congress.

A blade or nail

When girls are born in the Embera Chami reserve of Pueblo Rico, a region under Indigenous jurisdiction, midwives use a blade or red-hot nail to remove part of all of their external genitalia, local women told AFP.
The practice, which has declared a human rights violation by the UN and World Health Organization but remains widespread in parts of Africa, is a taboo subject in the Embera reserve.
Many people look away or remain silent, clearly uncomfortable, when the subject comes up.
Guasorna only learned that she had undergone the procedure after hearing rumors that were eventually confirmed by her sister.
Francia Giraldo, an Embera leader, said some babies bleed to death and are never taken to hospital. Parents receive neither birth nor death certificates.
Their mothers, she said, "bury them" straight away.
The bill before Congress, which was drafted by lawmakers together with Indigenous women leaders, aims to end the practice.
It does not, however, provide for midwives who flout the ban to be punished, with Indigenous leaders arguing that the women "lack information" about the dangers of FGM.
It calls instead for a government-led awareness campaign to sensitize them to the suffering caused by the mutilation and to dispel myths about girls who are spared -- that they will grow up to be sexually promiscuous or even that their clitorises will grow into something resembling a penis.
- Pain and secrecy - 
Sexual relations are often painful for victims of FGM.
Etelbina Queragama's face is dotted with paint marks that denote her status within her community.
Speaking in Embera, translated into Spanish by one of her seven children, the 63-year-old housewife said she has "never" felt anything but pain during intercourse.
There are no official figures on the practice of genital mutilation, given the secrecy surrounding the custom.
But according to the National Health Institute, at least 204 cases were performed in Colombia between 2020 and 2025. 
Sarita Patino, a doctor at a hospital that treats FGM victims in Pueblo Rico, believes the incidence of FGM is "greatly under-reported."
Since the start of the year, she has already seen six cases.
In February, a six-month-old baby was brought in with a fever. "The baby girl had her clitoris mutilated... (it looked) like a burn," Patino said.
- Byproduct of slave trade - 
According to the United Nations, an estimated 230 million women and girls around the world are subjected to FGM every year.
In Colombia, the practice is believed to be the product of intermingling between Indigenous and Afro-Colombians who make up around 10 percent of the population but who very rarely still practice FGM.
Carolina Giraldo (no relation of Francia), a historian and Embera congresswoman who drafted the ban on FGM, said it pains her "when people call us (the Embera) murderers and ignorant" over genital cutting.
She hopes to see "women who advocate for women's rights" travel to remote areas to campaign for an end to the silent suffering of Indigenous girls.
als/das/cb/sms

book

In Belgium, prime minister's wife shares anorexia struggle

BY MATTHIEU DEMEESTERE

  • De Wever's Flemish conservatives had just won the national election, and he was tipped for prime minister.
  • Just weeks after her husband won Belgium's national elections in 2024, Veerle Hegge found herself in hospital for an eating disorder that almost claimed her life.
  • De Wever's Flemish conservatives had just won the national election, and he was tipped for prime minister.
Just weeks after her husband won Belgium's national elections in 2024, Veerle Hegge found herself in hospital for an eating disorder that almost claimed her life.
Nearly two years later -- including six months of full-time treatment -- Prime Minister Bart De Wever's wife shared with AFP why she chose to take her anorexia struggle public in a book that delves deep into her personal life.
"Mental illness is still surrounded by taboo," the 53-year-old schoolteacher said in an interview at her home in the port city of Antwerp. "It's something people feel uneasy, awkward even, to talk about."
"It's so important to get care early on when you are sick," she says, to avoid "falling in deeper."
"But you can only do that with help from the people around you."
Hegge has been De Wever's partner for three decades, through his longtime tenure as mayor of Antwerp and since he became prime minister last year, raising four children now aged 18 to 24.
Entitled "The weight of silence", her book focuses largely on the months she spent in hospital treatment in 2024 -- the time she needed to get back on her feet from a near-fatal battle with anorexia.
A striking scene recounts her hour-long car journey to a clinic in eastern Belgium -- with De Wever in stony silence at the wheel -- after it became clear getting full-time specialist help had become a matter of "survival."
De Wever's Flemish conservatives had just won the national election, and he was tipped for prime minister.
His wife remembers thinking he must be "disappointed" in her -- but not daring to ask. At home, she says, everyone used to "tiptoe around" the matter of her illness.
She describes a "rushed" arrival at the clinic -- and the shock of finding herself alone, with a psychiatric patient tag around her wrist.
"Bart couldn't stay long -- he had to get back to work as always," she writes in the book's opening pages. "We hugged briefly, and agreed to call one another. That was all. And Bart left."
Hegge speaks candidly of her loneliness and guilt at being away from home -- after so many years keeping family life ticking over while De Wever pursued his career -- although soon enough she was able to leave the hospital at weekends.
Later in the book, she writes that her husband had seemed "helpless" faced with her ordeal, and thanks him for sticking by her side.

Buried trauma

Much of Hegge's story is devoted to her childhood -- where her earliest memories are dominated by a mother prey to bouts of deep depression, whose fits of anger she grew to fear and second-guess.
Home life was often marred by silence and simmering conflict -- but that was not the hardest part of growing up.
From the age of five or six, she reveals she was sexually abused by an older boy over a period of several years -- a trauma she now realises she repressed until just a few years ago.
"Accepting that truth opened the floodgates," she writes. "It had a huge impact on my body, my sense of internal balance."
"Eighteen months later I was admitted to intensive care for an advanced eating disorder," she says -- the first of two episodes that would culminate with her hospitalisation the year of the election.
Hosting AFP's team in her family living room, in a comfy pullover and sneakers, Hegge says she is doing better.
Since her book hit the shelves -- in French last month, after an initial release in Dutch last year -- she says she has received countless messages of support.
Among those reaching out are people battling eating disorders themselves, or supporting loved ones as they struggle, who thank her for tackling the painful topic head-on.
"Some of the people I see cling on to me, or start to cry," she told AFP. "There is so much pain and suffering."
mad/ec/del/yad/ane

women

France makes reusable period products free for young women

  • Women under 26 with a state health insurance card, as well as women of all ages who benefit from special healthcare support due to their limited income, will be able to get their money back after buying these products in a pharmacy.
  • France's social security is to reimburse the cost of reusable menstrual cups and underwear for women under the age of 26 or battling poverty, the government said Thursday.
  • Women under 26 with a state health insurance card, as well as women of all ages who benefit from special healthcare support due to their limited income, will be able to get their money back after buying these products in a pharmacy.
France's social security is to reimburse the cost of reusable menstrual cups and underwear for women under the age of 26 or battling poverty, the government said Thursday.
The move to tackle period poverty is expected to help 6.7 million people -- almost a tenth of France's population of 69 million -- from the start of the next academic year in the autumn, it says.
Women under 26 with a state health insurance card, as well as women of all ages who benefit from special healthcare support due to their limited income, will be able to get their money back after buying these products in a pharmacy.
Parliament approved the measure as part of the country's social security budget for 2024.
But there was no decree to order implementation, causing anger among feminist groups and companies making the sustainable sanitary items.
A survey of 4,000 women in France in November showed one in ten used alternatives to mainstream period products such as ripped up clothes due to tight budgets, according to French charity Dons Solidaires.
France in 2016 reduced sales tax on period products from 20 percent to 5.5 percent.
In 2020, Scotland became the first country in the world to sign into law free universal access to period products in public buildings.
vac/ah/giv

US

In Lebanon shelters, women care for tiny babies, face pregnancy

BY LISA GOLDEN

  • Zein fled with her husband, their baby and other relatives when war erupted between Israel and Hezbollah on March 2, drawing Lebanon into the Middle East conflict.
  • Mariam Zein cradled her 11-week-old son on a mattress on the floor where she and her family have sheltered near Beirut since the Israel-Hezbollah war upended her young family's life.
  • Zein fled with her husband, their baby and other relatives when war erupted between Israel and Hezbollah on March 2, drawing Lebanon into the Middle East conflict.
Mariam Zein cradled her 11-week-old son on a mattress on the floor where she and her family have sheltered near Beirut since the Israel-Hezbollah war upended her young family's life.
"I was really excited when I was in my ninth month of pregnancy... I never thought he'd be born and there'd be war," said Zein, 26, clutching baby Hussein.
"I haven't been able to enjoy my son -- my first child... to see him getting bigger in his own bed, in his own home."
"I was very sad, and I'm still sad," she told AFP, nappies and baby formula wedged near a photocopier, clothes hanging on an improvised line.
Zein fled with her husband, their baby and other relatives when war erupted between Israel and Hezbollah on March 2, drawing Lebanon into the Middle East conflict.
She does not know if her home in south Lebanon is still standing.
Israel has kept up strikes despite a fragile US-Iran ceasefire, a landmark meeting this week between Israeli and Lebanese officials in Washington, and reports that leaders from both countries would talk for the first time in decades.
Lebanese authorities say the war has killed more than 2,100 people and displaced more than one million others.
Some 140,000 people are in overcrowded shelters like the centre in Beirut's suburbs housing Zein's family and around 500 other people, among them five pregnant women and others with young babies.
Zein said she stopped breastfeeding because there was no privacy, and now struggles to buy baby formula, while Hussein is outgrowing his clothes.
"Whatever happens I just want my son near me," she said.

Pregnancy

According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), an estimated 620,000 women and girls are displaced, including some 13,500 pregnant women, of whom "1,500 are expected to give birth within the next 30 days". 
The agency and other organisations have sought to support women as the authorities struggled to cope.
In a small tent containing a portable ultrasound, obstetrician and gynaecologist Theresia Nassar has checked on women including Zein as part of a mobile health clinic run by charity Caritas Lebanon with support from UNFPA.
Displaced pregnant women risk missing important tests and scans, she said, and they are trying to fill the gaps.
"We're not just worried about physical health but also their mental health," she said.
"They don't know if they can go home, they don't have their medication, they're not being properly followed."
Elsewhere, at a school-turned-shelter in central Beirut, heavily pregnant Ghada Issa, 36, is due to deliver a baby girl in a few weeks.
But "this place, this environment, is not for pregnant women", said Issa, who was displaced from south Lebanon with her husband, their daughter Siham, five, and son Ali, four.
They live in a cramped tent, and she said even the basics are a problem, like having to make frequent trips to crowded, far-away communal toilets.

Twins

Her husband set up an improvised bed so she doesn't have to sleep on the floor.
Underneath are precious donated items like tiny socks and little blankets. A worker from charity Amel Association International brought then a "baby kit" including nappies and baby powder.
Without donations and other support, "there wouldn't be anything" for the baby, Issa said, as people playing football yelled, children squealed and washing hung on improvised lines.
The shelter's administration said some 20 pregnant women and two who had recently given birth were among more than 2,600 people staying there.
"I haven't got my head around the idea of having a baby here," Issa said.
"I'm still hoping that one day they'll tell me, let's go to the village, and I'll have the baby at home."
In a university classroom in south Lebanon's city of Sidon, Ghada Fadel, 36, cares for her tiny twin sons. Mohammed and Mehdi are just over one month old, and in blue jumpsuits and matching beanies.
The family has been there since she was eight months' pregnant, after fleeing their border village.
"After we left the house, they (Israel) bombed it. The house is gone" along with everything they had prepared for the twins, Fadel said.
"I was hoping to give birth and come home," she said sadly.
"Every mum hopes to take her kids home... no matter the circumstances."
lg-str/srm