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Madagascar minister sacked over $2M candy plan

WION Web Team
Antananarivo, Antananarivo, Madagascar Updated: Jun 07, 2020, 12:52 PM IST
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Photograph:(AFP)

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Rijasoa Andriamanana, Madagascar’s education minister, had ordered the candies to help mask the bitter aftertaste of a still-untested herbal remedy for coronavirus, according to the BBC. 

An education minister in Madagascar has been sacked after an alleged plan to order lollipops worth $2 million for school children.

Rijasoa Andriamanana, Madagascar’s education minister, had ordered the candies to help mask the bitter aftertaste of a still-untested herbal remedy for coronavirus, according to the BBC. 

The plan was -- obviously -- called off, and he was fired by Madagascar’s president, Andry Rajoelina.

Rajoelina is pushing the unproven tonic, called Covid-Organics, as a coronavirus cure in the country which has 1,000 cases of the virus and seven COVID-linked deaths.

The medicine is derived from artemisia -- a plant with proven efficacy in malaria treatment -- and other indigenous herbs.

The herbal remedy is mandatory for children returning to school. The drink is being distributed for free in some schools that are reopening and in poor neighbourhoods.

Madagascar, an Indian Ocean island nation of 26 million people, currently has 1,000 recorded cases of COVID-19 and seven deaths.