Millions count on 100 ambulances in mega-city

STANDING outside a public hospital in Lagos, Nigeria's biggest city, Michelin Hunsa is still “traumatised” from the two-hour wait it took to get an ambulance for her mother who was found unconscious by her neighbours.

- 

Such waits are not unusual in the mega-city, where notorious traffic jams snarl commutes and only about 100 ambulances serve a population of more than 20 million.

“It’s a serious problem, we waited far too long,’ Hunsa, 25, said. Her mother, suffering a cerebral haemorrhage, survived the ordeal.

Political and business bigwigs regularly bust through traffic with armed convoys and flashing lights in the largest city in West Africa - despite no actual emergency.

Ambulances blast sirens, take shortcuts and speed as fast as they can, but sometimes to no avail. Part of the problem stems from mistrust among other drivers, who are used to a state of quasi-war on the roads from frustrated commuters trying to get ahead.