BOBO-DIOULASSO: Isaka Diallo was playing with friends when a stone struck his left eye. For two weeks, his parents searched hospitals in western Burkina Faso for an eye doctor. The village clinic only prescribed painkillers. Other health workers did not know what to do.
When they eventually found Dr. Claudette Yaméogo, Burkina Faso’s only pediatric ophthalmologist, the injury had become too difficult to treat.
“The trauma has become severe,” Yaméogo said of Diallo’s condition as she attended to him recently at the Sanou Sourou University Hospital in the city of Bobo-Dioulasso. “Cases like (Diallo’s) must be treated within the first six hours, but I’m seeing him two weeks later, and it’s already too late.”
It is a common problem in the country of about 23 million people, which has just 70 ophthalmologists.
Yaméogo , who started her practice late last year, said the work is daunting and often requires her to visit — at no cost — families who cannot afford care or cannot make their way to the hospital where she works.
While there is limited data available on eye defects in children in Burkina Faso or in Africa at large, an estimated 450 million children globally have a sight problem that needs treatment, according to the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness.
Late intervention can significantly alter a child’s future, the organization said, with many such cases in less developed countries.
In Burkina Faso, an estimated 70 percent of the population lives in rural areas. And yet ophthalmologists are concentrated in the capital, Ouagadougou, and other main cities, making them unreachable for many.
While more than 2,000 ophthalmology procedures were performed in Burkina Faso’s western Hauts-Bassins region in 2024, only 52 of those were carried out in its more rural areas, according to the Ministry of Health. Most procedures were done in the area of Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso’s second city.
Not many people are aware of Yaméogo’s work. Even when they are, traveling to reach her often requires days of planning and financial saving.
In a further challenge to accessing care, Diallo’s family is among the 2 million people displaced by violence as extremist groups seize parts of the country.
To visit Yaméogo’s hospital from the village where they are sheltering, they had to travel about 40 kilometers (21 miles) on a motorcycle to Bobo-Dioulasso, spending 7,500 francs ($13) on transport, a high price for a small-scale farming family.
At least 70 percent of the trauma cases in children treated at the hospital come from rural areas where the risk of exposure — from conflict or from play — is higher, Yaméogo said.
Examining and treating a child is a delicate practice that requires a lot of time, something many families can’t afford. Many must return home to earn money for the treatment.
As she treated Diallo, Yaméogo noticed that the boy associated a drawing of an apple with a pepper, making her wonder: Is it that he can’t see it, or that he doesn’t know what an apple is? The fruit doesn’t grow in the region where he lives.
“There’s no fixed time for examining children,” she said. “You need a lot of patience.”
Yameogo’s work has had a “very positive impact on training future pediatricians and on the quality of ophthalmology services,” said Jean Diallo, president of the Burkinabè Society of Ophthalmology.
“A child’s eye is not the same as that of an adult, which is why we need specialists to treat problems early so the child can develop properly,” Diallo said.
He cited retinoblastoma, a retinal cancer mostly affecting young children, and congenital cataracts, eye diseases that can be cured if diagnosed early. Pediatricians won’t necessarily detect them.
During another consultation, Yaméogo told the family of 5-year-old Fatao Traoré that he would need cornea surgery as a result of an injury sustained while playing with a stick.
“Sometimes I feel a pinch in my heart,” Yaméogo said as she examined the boy after they arrived from their farm on the outskirts of Bobo-Dioulasso. “His iris has detached from his cornea, so he needs to be hospitalized.”
The father, looking overwhelmed, sighed, unsure of where the money for the child’s surgery would come. On paper, Burkina Faso’s government covers the cost of medications and care for children under 5, but often no drugs are available in hospitals, meaning families must buy them elsewhere.
A surgery like the one for Traoré can cost 100,000 CFA ($179), several months’ income for the family.

SEOUL: South Korea’s disgraced ex-president Yoon Suk Yeol was detained for a second time Thursday over his declaration of martial law and held in a solitary cell as investigators widened their insurrection probe.
Yoon plunged South Korea into a political crisis when he sought to subvert civilian rule on December 3 last year, sending armed soldiers to parliament in a bid to prevent lawmakers voting down his declaration of martial law.
He became South Korea’s first sitting president to be taken into custody when he was detained in a dawn raid in January, after he spent weeks resisting arrest, using his presidential security detail to head off investigators.
But he was released on procedural grounds in March, even as his trial on insurrection charges continued.
After Yoon’s impeachment was confirmed by the court in April, he again refused multiple summons from investigators, prompting them to seek his detention once more to ensure cooperation.
The latest arrest warrant was issued over concerns that Yoon would “destroy evidence” in the case, Nam Se-jin, a senior judge at Seoul’s Central District Court said.
Yoon is being held in a solitary cell which has only a fan and no air-conditioning, as a heat wave grips South Korea. According to the official schedule, he was offered a regulation breakfast including steamed potatoes and milk.
Investigators said Thursday that Yoon’s status as former president will be “duly considered” but otherwise he will be “treated like any other suspect.”
“Investigations during the detention period will focus on the warrant’s stated charges,” prosecutor Park Ji-young told reporters.
Yoon’s criminal trial also continued with a hearing Thursday, although he did not attend for the first time.


The former president, 64, attended a hearing over the new warrant on Wednesday that lasted about seven hours, during which he rejected all charges, before being taken to a holding center near Seoul where he awaited the court’s decision on whether to detain him again.
During his warrant hearing, the former president said he is now “fighting alone,” local media reported.
“The special counsel is now going after even my defense lawyers,” said Yoon during his hearing.
“One by one my lawyers are stepping away, and I may soon have to fight this alone.”
Once the warrant was issued early Thursday, Yoon was placed in a solitary cell at the facility, where he can be held for up to 20 days as prosecutors prepare to formally indict him including on additional charges.
“Once Yoon is indicted, he could remain detained for up to six months following indictment,” Yun Bok-nam, president of Lawyers for a Democratic Society, told AFP.
“Theoretically, immediate release is possible, but in this case, the special counsel has argued that the risk of evidence destruction remains high, and that the charges are already substantially supported.”


During the hearing, Yoon’s legal team criticized the detention request as unreasonable, stressing that Yoon has been ousted and “no longer holds any authority.”
Earlier this month, the special counsel questioned Yoon about his resistance during a failed arrest attempt in January, as well as accusations that he authorized drone flights to Pyongyang to help justify declaring martial law.
The former president also faces charges of falsifying official documents related to the martial law bid.
Yoon has defended his martial law decision as necessary to “root out” pro-North Korean and “anti-state” forces.
But the Constitutional Court, when ousting Yoon from office on April 4 in a unanimous decision, said his acts were a “betrayal of people’s trust” and “denial of the principles of democracy.”
South Korea’s current president, Lee Jae Myung, who won the June snap election, approved legislation launching sweeping special investigations into Yoon’s push for martial law and various criminal accusations tied to his administration and wife.