 Hello and welcome to the International Daily Nanda by People's Dispatch, where we bring you major news developments from around the world. Our headlines Activists demand dissolution of military junta in Chad 65 killed in fighting between Houthis and government forces in Yemen's Marib city Israel removes restrictions around Al-Aqsa mosque following days of violence And in our video section, we take a look at the latest from the COVID-19 outbreak in India In our first story, civil rights groups in Chad are mobilizing to demand the dissolution of the military junta The military seized power last week after the death of President Idris Debi Army officials stated on April 20 that he had died due to wounds sustained in the battle with the fact rebels in the country's north His death was announced yesterday after he was projected to win a sixth term in office as per provincial election results The election had been boycotted by most prominent opposition leaders following crackdowns on protests and opposition campaigns Following his death, the army announced that his son Mohammed Debi Itno will head an interim military council The country's government and parliament have been dissolved, curfews have been imposed and borders are closed The military council will stay in power for 18 months following which elections will be held However, this is in violation of Chad's constitution It mandates that power be transferred to the speaker of the parliament in the event of the president's death and fresh elections be organized The constitution now stands suspended The former colonial power of France has backed the military junta citing stability and territorial integrity France is a large military base in the country's capital which serves as the command center for its operations in the region Meanwhile, opposition parties have condemned the military takeover as an institutional coup Fact also announced on April 25 that it was ready to observe a ceasefire for a political settlement However, the military junta has rejected the offer In the meantime, the African Union also issued a statement demanding the restoration of power to civilian authorities The next two or at least 61 fighters have been killed in a violent conflict in the city of Mareeb in Yemen Houthi rebels are fighting the Saudi and western-backed government of Abdullah Mansour Hadi for control over the city Mareeb is the center of Yemen's oil and gas rich region and is the large major stronghold of the Hadi government in the north Military reports say that on April 25, stated that Houthis were advancing very close to Mareeb's center despite heavy casualties They have reportedly seized full control of the Qasara battlefront in the northwest and made significant advances on the western front lines The fighting has now moved to the Al-Mil area which is just 6 kilometers from the city's population center Among the 65 Kilo 26 fighters loyal to the government including four officers and personnel, the number of Houthis killed has not been confirmed The city also witnessed escalation of conflict earlier this month with over 100 combatants killed With reports of renewed violence over the weekend, the UN has warned of mass displacement of civilians Around 13,600 people have already been displaced so far in 2021 Mareeb is home to around 800,000 internally displaced people living in camps The fighting is also led to civilian casualties with the UN reporting 40 deaths in March alone In our next story, Israel has removed restrictions around the Al-Aqsa mosque following over a week of violence in occupied East Jerusalem Metal barriers had been previously set up in the Damascus Gate area to prevent Palestinians from gathering there Sunday's decision was announced following nightly demonstration by thousands of Palestinians These had been met with violence by Israeli settlers and forces who deployed stun grenades and skunk water cannons Several Zionist supremacists in extremist groups including Lehava attacked Palestinians throughout last week Lehava also led hundreds in a march on April 22, chanting depth to Arabs Over 100 Palestinians were injured and dozens were registered while trying to oppose this violence Demonstrations in solidarity with the Palestinians in occupied Jerusalem were also held in Gaza Israeli forces also opened fire on protesters in the occupied West Bank on Sunday Palestinian news agency Wafa reported the use of tear gas, stun grenades and live gunfire At least three Palestinians sustained gunfire injuries in the village of Al-Bubah Meanwhile, Israeli media reported rocket attacks from inside the Gaza Strip for the third consecutive night on April 25 The attacks have been attributed to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Fatah al-Aqsa Marjah's Brigade In response, Israeli authorities announced a complete closure of the Gaza fishing zone on April 26 Israel's heavy naval presence affects the livelihoods of nearly 4,000 fishermen In our final story, we take a look at the current COVID-19 situation in India The country reported a record high of over 352,000 new cases in 24 hours The Health Ministry also recorded 2,812 fatalities as of the morning of April 26 State governments and hospitals across the country have been consistently reporting severe oxygen and ICU bed shortages The Ministry of Home Affairs however has claimed that India has sufficient stocks with the main issue being transportation Here is Dr. Satyajit Rat to talk more about the current crisis facing the country We should be thinking about this as a series of local outbreaks Each of which has its own dynamics So what we have been seeing is a convergence or a coalescence of these outbreaks all across the country As we have locked down and reduced interactions in response to the growing numbers Inevitably, the rate of spread of many of these outbreaks is going down But our response has not been uniform across the country Clearly, in some places, heavily affected places, heavily policed places Since we keep converting this into a law and order problem, we have reduced interactions But in other places, we have not So what we currently have is the sum total of outbreaks which are dampening down because we have physically distanced ourselves But in other places, smaller outbreaks but many outbreaks which are still growing And that sum is going to be what is going to be represented by a flattening And it's slowly as more and more outbreaks die down and fewer and fewer outbreaks come up That we will begin to see the descending up So this is a point that all of us need to keep in mind The sheer noisy complexity of the landscape Secondly, all of that said It's quite clear that in the major areas contributing large growth in case numbers There seems to be a leveling off And if that pattern continues Then what we are likely to see over the next two or three weeks Is a tapering off and a plateauing and a long slow decline But clearly the decline, none of us should be expecting to be as precipitated decline as the increase was So let me say two things about oxygen and the related issues that have come up Firstly, despite the fact that we have been critical of the DST supermodel so-called What the current reports emanating are underlining is that by and large The technical advice that the government has been getting has been pretty good The government got the advice that it should be planning the so-called plan B reports that we are seeing That it should be planning for large numbers of simultaneous cases And one of the major limitations and components that needed to be planned for was oxygen as you point out So these things, it's not as if the government was not given this advice It's much more than that the government in sheer hubris and complacency seems to have not exactly ignored But as you point out, put this advice and implementation on the back burner So to say And that's clearly a contribution to our present state of affairs Secondly, the point I want to make is that a lack of hospitals, a lack of beds, a lack of oxygen does not manifest in dramatic spectacular falling off the cliff fashion And it does not do so because health workers struggle to provide within their means for as many patients as they can as best as they can Which is how what we are seeing underline becomes the north 3-4 people hooked with makeshift apparatus to a single oxygen cylinder desperately lying in corridors waiting for beds It's not that they are simply dying in rickshaws although clearly we also have that happening But that's not the only thing happening. There is a whole spectrum of suboptimal care happening And that spectrum of suboptimality is the result of individual healthcare workers, not just physicians all across the healthcare workers trying to do their best under awful conditions to provide for as many people as possible As a result, you have low pressure oxygen being provided and all of this is resulting not in two groups of people getting good care and people getting no care But a whole range of people getting suboptimal care and at each point in this suboptimality, we are going to have an increased possibility of illness, prolonged illness and death Consider just how much pressure we are putting our skilled healthcare personnel under when we increase the numbers that they have to deal with We have nursing staff that are being put in charge of 15, 20, 25, 30 patients day after day, week after week We are not just acknowledging their efforts, we are not making any efforts to enhance these numbers See, it's one thing to talk about oxygen. You can manufacture oxygen with a delay of weeks if you do it on a phrase that I particularly dislike war footing How will you do this for skilled personnel availability? This is what the largest casualty of short term crisis perspective in pandemic management has been We have not planned for the long term That's all your time for today. We are tomorrow with more news from around the world. Until then, keep watching People's Dispatch