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COVID-19 reveals risky life on the buses for Ethiopia’s child conductors

COVID-19 reveals risky life on the buses for Ethiopia’s child conductors

EMELINE WUILBERCQ Every day, Tarekegn Medhin wakes up at dawn to search for a conductor job at one of Addis Ababa's frenetic minibus depots. Despite lousy working conditions and chronic shoulder pain - it takes heft to manoeuvre the bus doors at speed - the nine-year-old lines up in hope of any driver offering him a shift. All for 100 birr ($2.78) a day. But since April, when Ethiopia ordered operators to cut passenger numbers to curb the new coronavirus, it has become increasingly hard for the child conductors to make ends meet. "Life is not comfortable. I spend my…
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