COVID-19

Coronavirus caused the death of Niger’s minister of employment and labour, Mohamed Ben Omar, public television announced Monday after several media outlets had linked his death to the virus. The Social Democratic Party (PSD) which he belonged to confirmed that Ben Omar, 55, had died on Sunday at the main hospital in the capital Niamey but did not list the cause. “Alas, it is this terrible disease which took the life of minister Mohamed Ben Omar,” public television Tele Sahel reported. Before announcing the news, the channel broadcast a recent message from the minister urging workers to protect themselves from the coronavirus. “COVID-19 is a reality, it’s not a state of mind. It’s deadly. It kills. It spreads at the speed of light,” Mohamed Ben Omar told the station. “We must get a grip of ourselves in order to say ‘stop this virus.’ It is discipline alone that will be the weapon to destroy this virus,” he said.