|
 As transport companies suspend services, cutting off the region,
governments and economists have warned that the epidemic could crush
the fragile economic gains made in Sierra Leone and Liberia
following a decade of civil war in the 1990s.
At least 1,427 people have died of the deadly hemorrhagic virus
since it was first detected in the remote jungles of southeast
Guinea in March and spread quickly to neighbouring Liberia and
Sierra Leone. Five people have also died in Nigeria.
Air France, the French network of Air France-KLM said on Wednesday
it had suspended flights to Sierra Leone after advice from the
French government.
African Development Bank (AfDB) chief Donald Kaberuka said on a
visit to Sierra Leone he had seen estimates of a reduction of up to
4 percent in gross domestic product due to Ebola.
"Revenues are down, foreign exchange levels are down, markets are
not functioning, airlines are not coming in, projects are being
cancelled, business people have left - that is very, very damaging,"
he told Reuters late on Tuesday.
Liberia has already said it would have to lower its 2014 growth
forecast, without giving a new one.
Sierra Leone Deputy Minister of Mineral Resources Abdul Ignosis
Koroma said the government would miss its target of exporting $200
million in diamonds this year because of the Ebola outbreak. It
exported $186 million of diamonds in 2013.
He said miners were too afraid to go to alluvial diamonds pits in
the Ebola-stricken east and tough border controls to curb the spread
of the virus were also hurting the trade.
Several international companies in the region have pulled out
expatriate staff in recent weeks. Iron ore miner London Mining,
whose only operating mine is in Sierra Leone, said recently that
Ebola could hurt its production this year.
The AfDB has announced $60 million to help train medical workers and
purchase supplies to fight the outbreak. Some $15 million will be
disbursed in September, Kaberuka said, voicing hope the donation
would stop money being diverted away from other programmes such as
education and agriculture.
Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontier (MSF), which has been
spearheading the healthcare response, said international efforts had
been chaotic and entirely inadequate to the scale of the crisis. It
said its new centre in the Liberian capital Monrovia had filled with
Ebola patients shortly after opening.
"It is simply unacceptable that ... serious discussions are only
starting now about international leadership and coordination," said
Brice de la Vigne, MSF operations director. "Self-protection is
occupying the entire focus of states that have the expertise and
resources to make a dramatic difference."
MEDICAL EVIDENCE VERSUS POLITICS
Kaberuka, echoing comments from governments of the Ebola-affected
countries, said travel and trade restrictions imposed by airlines,
shipping firms and neighbouring economies were increasing the
economic hardship.
[to top of second column] |
"I understand the countries which are posing restrictions ... but
let us only do so based on medical evidence and not on political
imperatives," said Kaberuka. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has
repeatedly advised against such bans, warning they could cause food
and supply shortages.
Brussels Airlines said on Wednesday it resumed flights to Liberia,
Sierra Leone and Guinea after it was forced to suspend the routes at
the weekend after Senegal refused to allow it to change its flight
crews there.
The airline, in which Germany's Lufthansa owns a 45 percent stake,
said there were passenger waiting lists in all three countries and
around 50 tonnes worth of emergency medical supplies waiting at
Brussels airport to be transported.
"There is indeed a strong need for airline services to the
countries," spokesman Geert Sciot told Reuters. "We're trying under
extremely difficult circumstances to fill that role."
In Nigeria, where five people have died after an infected U.S.
citizen flew in from Liberia, the outbreak has been contained so
far.
"Nigeria is still at risk of Ebola because we still have one case
and from this one case the risk of spread is there," Health Minister
Onyebuchi Chukwu said, adding that the start of the school year,
planned for Monday, would be delayed until Oct. 13 as a preventive
measure.
Democratic Republic of Congo announced on Sunday a separate outbreak
of Ebola in its remote northwestern province of Equateur and said it
had killed at least 13 people. It was Congo's seventh outbreak since
the disease - believed to be carried by bush animals - was first
detected there in 1976.
"At this time, it is believed that the outbreak in DRC is unrelated
to the ongoing outbreak in west Africa," the U.N. agency said in a
statement, adding that samples had been sent to laboratories to
determine the specific strain of the virus.
(Additional reporting by James Giahyue in Monrovia and Felix Onuah
in Abuja; Writing by Emma Farge and Joe Bavier; Editing by Daniel
Flynn, Gareth Jones and Cynthia Osterman)
[© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2014 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
