The National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives (NANNM) has denied reports that its members have suspended the nationwide strike.
The NANNM leadership met with Ali Pate, coordinating minister of health and social welfare, last Friday as part of ongoing negotiations to end the industrial action.
Speaking after the meeting, Pate reportedly claimed an agreement had been reached and announced that the union had called off the strike.
But Morakinyo-Olajide Rilwan, NANNM national chairman, said the industrial action is still on.
Rilwan said: ‘The strike is still on until there is official communication from the association saying otherwise.’
Nurses and midwives under the association commenced a warning strike on July 29 following the government’s failure to address their demands.
NANNM had issued a 15-day ultimatum to the federal government, starting July 14, to meet its members’ demands which include gazetting the nurses’ scheme of service approved by the NCE in 2016 in Minna, Niger state; implementing the national industrial arbitration court judgement of 27th January, 2012; upward reviewing of professional allowance for nurses and midwives; employment of nursing personnel; and adequate provision of health facility equipment.
Other demands include the creation of a department of nursing in the federal ministry of health; inclusion of nurses in the leadership of the health policy-making body; a fair representation by the association on the board, membership in federal health institutions; centralisation of internship postings for graduate nurses; and consultancy for nurses and midwives.
The association is also demanding the withdrawal of the content of the recently released circular on reviewed allowances for health workers (nurses), describing it as ‘grossly inadequate and discriminatory’.
Meanwhile last Friday, The Kenya National Union of Nurses (KNUN) led by National Deputy Secretary General Maurice Opetu, announced plans to go on strike starting 8th August unless the County Governments, Ministry of Health, Council of Governors, and other concerned institutions commit to addressing their demands
The union said it has faced years of unmet promises and persistent neglect by successive national and local governments.
The looming strike, described by union leaders as the ‘mother of all strikes’, threatens to cripple public healthcare facilities and leave millions without critical care.
Frederick Oigo, the Deputy National Chairman of KNUN said: ‘Nurses have been patient enough… If we take national action, the government will have no one else to blame. We entered a return-to-work agreement in 2017 up to today, it remains unfulfilled.’
According to Henry Hadula, KNUN’s National Trustee, several counties have been evasive and dishonest.
He said: ‘We were taken through conciliation to avoid industrial action. But counties have been cunning.
‘They say there’s no money, yet the national government disbursed over Sh6.2 billion (£36.5 million) for UHC nurses. To date, many haven’t been confirmed on permanent terms.’
The union has listed several issues fuelling the planned strike, including failure to implement the SRC salary review circular dated September 12, 2024, which was adopted by the national government but ignored by counties.
Deputy Secretary General Opetu said: ‘We have nurses manning wards with 40 patients. They don’t go on leave. They’re overworked, underpaid and mentally drained.
‘We’ve been moving in circles for eight years. We have had enough.’
He added that universities and medical training colleges, have been asked to recall their students, warning that nurses will not be available to supervise interns during the strike.
While the Ministry of Labour did appoint conciliators after the union issued a strike notice in May 2025, the 30-day extension granted by KNUN will expire on Friday, 8th August.
- In South Africa, government officials are under increasing pressure to cut relations with Israel and expel the regime’s diplomats, in light of the rising anger regarding its campaign of genocide through starvation in the Gaza Strip.
Pro-Palestine activists stated that they have tried to stop what they describe as South Africa’s complicity in Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza, where over 200,000 Palestinians have either lost their lives or sustained injuries, and the entire population is confronting famine.
Zukiswa Wanner, an author and activist, said that numerous South Africans believed Pretoria’s choice to bring Israel before the International Court of Justice in late 2023 would lead to a quick resolution of the 22-month conflict; however, Israel, supported by pro imperialist governments, persisted in its military offensive against the region.
Wanner said: ‘Almost two years later, Israel has not relented, and we continue seeing the horror visited on the Palestinians.
‘We demand of our government that they finalise this small thing: South Africa can’t be having normal relations with an abnormal, genocidal regime.’
Since Israel commenced its genocide on Gaza in October 2023, only Bolivia and Belize have cut diplomatic ties with it.
At different times, the Muslim-majority nations of Bahrain, Chad, Jordan, and Turkey have recalled their ambassadors, yet all continue to have diplomatic relations with Israel.
Since 2018, South Africa has not appointed an ambassador to Israel. However, activists argue that the nation must adopt a more assertive stance against the regime.
Numerous South Africans have expressed their profound disappointment regarding President Cyril Ramaphosa’s government’s choice to disregard parliament’s decision from November 2023 to cut relations with Israel.
Speaking about the African National Congress-led government, Wanner said: ‘You have rightly brought a case of genocide against Israel to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), so you have determined Israel is committing genocide. How then can we continue to have diplomatic and economic relations with that genocidal state?’
In various regions of South Africa, discontent regarding Israel’s war on Gaza and its brutal occupation of the West Bank has led to marches as well as protests outside embassies and ports.
Activists in the port city of Durban have mobilised this week following reports that a vessel travelling from South Africa to the Occupied Territories was carrying cargo that could be utilised in the war.
The ship, which came from Chennai, India, was transporting ‘hazardous materials.’
Given that India has previously supplied combat drones, along with shipments of explosives and components to the Israelis, the activists intervened in order to stop Durban from serving as a conduit for the killing of Palestinians.
- The South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) on Saturday condemned in the strongest possible terms the unilateral decision by US President Donald Trump to impose a punitive 30 per cent tariff on South African exports. This reckless act of economic aggression is designed to protect US corporations at the expense of workers, communities, and industries in the Global South.
SAFTU stated: ‘South Africa enters this crisis with official unemployment at 32.9 per cent deepening poverty, and collapsing public services. The imposition of these tariffs will deliver a direct blow to working-class livelihoods:
‘Over 70,000 jobs are at immediate risk in export-linked sectors such as agriculture (citrus, wine, nuts), automotive manufacturing, metals, and agro-processing.
‘Agricultural exports worth over R14 billion (£580 million) to the US face steep losses, threatening rural economies and seasonal farmworker incomes.
‘Automotive exports, a flagship manufacturing sector, risk a 20-30 per cent drop in US sales, undermining production and supply chain jobs.
‘The shock to exports could cut 0.2-0.3 per cent from GDP in 2025, with multiplier effects spreading to retail, transport, and other services.
‘This trade war is not simply a South African crisis – it threatens the stability of global trade, undermines multilateralism, and will hit developing nations hardest.’
SAFTU calls on President Cyril Ramaphosa to take decisive action and demands:
1. Convene an emergency national meeting bringing together trade unions, progressive economists, industrialists, and government ministries to develop a coordinated national response;
2. Accelerate diversification of trade, making full use of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and deepening economic ties with Latin America, Asia, and the Global South;
3. Invest in industrialisation and infrastructure, particularly rail, ports, and manufacturing capacity, to strengthen local production and reduce dependence on hostile markets;
4. Protect workers and communities from the immediate impact of tariffs through targeted relief packages for affected sectors, wage protection measures, and income support for vulnerable households;
5. Build global solidarity via the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and allied movements to oppose protectionist aggression and advance an equitable global trade order.