News

The authorities at the Freetown International Airport at Lungi have responded to the Ebola outbreak in a stunningly impressive and reassuring manner.

This comes as the International Air Transport Association clears Sierra Leone as a country fit to travel to and from. (see right box).

The authorities have installed a non-body contact flash thermometer, which reads the body temperature of all passengers passing through the airport.

President Ernest Bai Koroma will today travel to Conakry to meet with his Liberian and Guinean counterparts as the three countries struggle to curb the deadly Ebola virus.

The three will be joined by the Director-General of the UN World Health Organisation, Margaret Chan who will launch a new joint US$ 100 million response plan as part of an intensified international, regional and national campaign to bring the outbreak under control.

Sierra Leoneans working for the United Nations in nine countries have raised among themselves around US$ 41,000 towards efforts to fight off Ebola in their home country.

The staff include civilian, military and warders or prison officers.
After deliberations, the staff who work in Liberia, Sudan, South Sudan, DR Congo,  Somalia, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Kenya and United States, decided to send the money through UNICEF after the children's agency had told them about the items most needed for the intervention.

(C) Politico 01/08/14

By Aminata Phidelia Allie

Prosecutor in the on-going preliminary investigation of Dr. Richard Konteh and two others for alleged illegal timber export has asked that the bail for Alie Suma, one of the accused, be revoked because he "interferes with witnesses".

Monfred Momoh Sesay said “we have got very strong information that is maturing into evidence that the accused and or his relations have started contacting some of our potential witnesses with the intention of interfering with them.”

The United States Centre for Disease Control and Prevention yesterday raised its travel health alert to three, its highest, warning Americans to avoid nonessential travel to Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

The CDC Director, Tom Frieden said the agency would also send additional 50 personnel over the next month to the three countries to help the 12 staff already on ground.

The European Union said Wednesday it is allocating €2 million to fight the spread of the Ebola virus in West Africa, with the money going to support the World Health Organization, Doctors Without Borders, and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

By Bampia James Bundu

Newly appointed chairperson of the Human Rights Commission in Sierra Leone, Brima Sheriff, has donated four litres of chlorine to each of 15 selected schools in eastern Freetown.

He said the donation was being made on behalf of his family whom he said was committed to ensuring that schools and other institutions were supported to fight the deadly Ebola virus. He said the disease was dangerous and should be treated with the seriousness it deserved.