This morning while checking news about Togo as usual i found out there was bad news: The Togolese Sports minister Richard Attipoe, some members of FTF (Federation Togolaise de Football) and some Togolese football fans died in a helicopter crash in Sierra Leone while being transported on a 13 km ride from Freetown to the Lungi Airport. The two Ukrainians or Russian pilots allegedly jumped out after the helicopter went in flames. 21 people died and only one of the pilots survived. My sincere condoleances to the families involved in this terrible accident.
The other bad news is that the big construction instruments store in Lome called SONACOM went up in flames and the Togolese “firefighters” could not put out the fire with their rudimentary and old equipment and poor training. The fire was finally put out thanks to the help of the people of the neighborhood where the store is located.
The good news is that a Doctor from Benin Jérôme Fagla Médégan found a medicine that can cure this disease called in French “drepanocytose” a genetically transmitted disease that changes the red blood cells’ shape and causes atrocious pain in the joints and bones. This disease kills about 200 000 people in Africa every year. A french research institute granted the doctor a “brevet” and a French pharmaceutical company agreed to manufacture the medicine. Hopefully it won’t take too long for this to be on the market and not too expensive for people who have this disease (including a cousin of mine) and they could get relief.