Tag Archives: Survive

Somali Pirates’ Hostages ‘Ate Rats’ To Survive

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A group of sailors who were held hostage by Somali pirates for nearly five years survived in part by eating rats, one survivor has told the BBC.

Filipino sailor Arnel Balbero said they were also only given small amounts of water and felt like “the walking dead” by the end of their ordeal.

The 26 sailors were seized on board their ship in 2012 and were eventually taken to Somalia.

They were freed on Saturday, reportedly after a ransom was paid.

The sailors were from China, the Philippines, Cambodia, Indonesia, Vietnam and Taiwan.

Mr Balbero was among the crew of the FV Naham 3 when it was captured by Somali pirates south of the Seychelles. One crew member was killed during the capture, according to non-governmental organisation Oceans Beyond Piracy.

A year later, the ship sank and the crew were brought onshore in Somalia. Two sailors subsequently died of illnesses.

Mr Balbero told the BBC that the last four and a half years had left him and his compatriots “like walking dead”.

Asked how the pirates treated them, he said: “They give us small amount of water only… We eat rat. Yes, we cook it in the forest.”

“[We] just eat anything, anything. You feel hungry, you eat.”

He also spoke of their difficulties adjusting to life after their ordeal, saying: “I don’t know what is… outside of this world when this finish, so it’s very hard to start again.”

Read More: bbc

How State Governors Can Survive Recession- el-Rufai

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Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, has listed various ways state governors can both survive the economic recession and become less dependent on Federal Government.
Speaking with Daily Sun at the opening of the World Pension Summit (WPS) summit in Abuja Tuesday, el-Rufai advised his counterparts to immediately flush out ghost workers and ghost pensioners using the biometric verification method.
He also asked them to reduce their aides and other personal staff; improve their tax collection machinery while investing in healthcare and agriculture.
“As governors, we need to focus on cutting costs, reducing the machinery of government and the size so that we can live within our means. We also need to look at our state economies and find a way of not relying heavily on federation account. That means developing agriculture, developing mining, improving our tax collection mechanism so that we generate more revenue from taxes. “We also have to focus on education and healthcare because we’ve a growing population. Nigeria is forecast to be the third most populous country in the world by 2050 with a population of about 450 million people. That is not a bad thing if that population is educated. The challenge is for the state governments that are directly responsible for the provision of social services. So, they need to spend a large part of their annual budget on education and healthcare. That’s what we’re trying to do in Kaduna State”, he stated.
El’Rufai said: “Most state governors have inherited huge bureaucracy, a large number of employees they may not need and all that. Most of these Ministries and Agencies were created when the price of oil was over N100 per barrel. Today, it’s down to N40. So, it’s no longer sustainable to keep that size and number of employees. And they have to start by reducing the number of political appointees, reducing number of ministries by merging some of them, looking at the nominal role and ensure ghost workers are eliminated, etc.
“So, you ask whether you need the number of employees you have and if you don’t, get some to exit and then give them a good package so that they can start their own businesses. Then, you’ll have a size of government you can afford.
“Then, you look at the overhead cost, which is the cost of running the government. Look at travelling, the tea and coffee, the estacode, money spent on conferences, workshops, and see ways of cutting them down. I don’t think Nigeria needs a lot of conferences and the problems we have have been debated and solved.”

Credit: sunnewsonline

Miracle Baby & Mother Survive 4 Days In Jungle After Deadly Plane Crash

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CNN reports a baby survived for four days with his mother after their plane crashed in a jungle in Colombia.

The plane was bound for Quibdó from Chocó, for what should have been a short 30-minute flight. It crashed shortly after takeoff around 1 p.m. on Saturday. When the plane crashed, it caught on fire. 19-year-old María Nelly Murillo Moreno (pictured above being taken to the hospital) acted quickly to save her infant son. She was reportedly burned in the fire while she worked to rescue her baby from the plane’s wreckage.

 The plane’s pilot, Carlos Mario Ceballos, died when the plane crashed (his body was found on Sunday). Rescue workers began looking for the mother immediately and were aided by small clues she left to help them find her. She dropped the baby’s birth certificate, a cell phone, and even the pilot’s wallet as part of a trail.

Murillo survived on coconut milk while breastfeeding the baby. Rescuers searching for them in helicopters found them on Wednesday. They were both taken to a hospital in Quibdó where doctors found little injuries to the baby except for a sore bottom because he had run out of diapers. Officials credit their survival to the fact that while the cockpit sustained severe damage, the cabin was left relatively unscathed.

Credit: cosmopolitan