But we don't know if there was a sick pax on board do we - hence the question mark after my original posting.
7700 is for use in an emergency situation. If someone on board, passenger or crew, becomes dangerously ill that is an emergency in my book. Maybe in some countries life is not so precious?
7700 is very useful in a busy traffic area because everyone can see it and will assist in moving traffic out of the way.
The guy flying the King Air in Africa sounds like a 100% cup cake. I'm not surprised that ATC declared the emergency - they knew what they were doing!!