Africa
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President John Mahama of Ghana has said that regional and international response to Ebola should also focus on orphans whose parents died of Ebola disease and survivors who are being stigmatised
| By Maureen Chigbo | Nov. 17, 2014 @ 01:00 GMT |
PRESIDENT John Dramani Mahama of Ghana, who is also the current chairman of the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, Commission, is concerned about the two burning issues in the region. They are the spread of Ebola disease in three member countries and the political crisis in Burkina Faso, following the resignation of President Blaise Compaoré on October 31, and the military takeover of power.
Mahama gave voice to his concern at the regional summit in Accra on Thursday, November 6, when he said that regional and international responses to the Ebola scourge should “extend beyond the obvious and tangible needs” and address equally critical issues of fear and stigmatisation, and the growing number of children being orphaned by the disease. He told audience at the summit which was attended by eight heads of state and government, vice presidents and ministers, including Burkina Faso Ambassador that Liberia alone, one of the three countries mostly affected by the outbreak and which is recovering from a 14-year devastating civil war, has registered more than 2,000 orphans. He added that about 50 percent of people fortunate to survive the disease in the region “are unable to return to homes in which they once lived or return to their former jobs.”
“With such large numbers of the labour force unable to work as a result of infection or quarantine measures, the economies of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone have all but crumbled,” the ECOWAS chair told his colleagues while opening the extra-ordinary summit on Ebola.
About 5000 persons have died from Ebola disease mostly from three ECOWAS member States including Sierra Leone and Guinea. Citing the inter-connectedness of the economies nations in the region, President Mahama said the “discussion of aid must include a plan for the future sustainability” of the three Ebola severely affected countries. “We cannot and must not leave them (countries) as the disease found them. To do so would make all our efforts and all of our assistance virtually meaningless,” he said.
While acknowledging the success stories in Nigeria and Senegal, which have been declared Ebola free by the World Health Organisation, WHO, the ECOWAS chairman insists that “there is so much more that needs to be done, and received,” to defeat the disease.
In his remarks, Kadré Desire Ouédraogo, president of the ECOWAS Commission, announced that the commission has donated one million dollars to each of the three severely affected countries to help strengthen their fight against the disease. He commended the “great solidarity” with the regional response, and saluted the “memory of the thousands of victims, including national and foreign health workers,” and offered his “sincere condolences to their families and the people of the affected countries.”
Ouedraogo praised Nigeria and Cote d’Ivoire for their contributions to the regional Solidarity Fund on Ebola, and urged other Member States to pay their voluntary contributions, adding that the Commission had already taken measures to address the socio-economic impacts of the scourge under its programmes.
Other initiatives include development of the multi-sectoral regional development plan, deployment of staff of the West African Health Organisation, WAHO, ECOWAS’ specialised health agency, field missions to 11 member States and harmonization of crisis communication and behavior change messages on the prevention and defeat of the disease in the entire region.
Ouédraogo also expressed gratitude to ECOWAS development partners and the invaluable support by WHO and the African Union.
On Burkina Faso, he lauded the chairman’s role in the dispatch of the UN-AU-ECOWAS mission to the country and his visit along with two of his colleagues of Nigeria and Senegal and expressed the hope that a roadmap will be agreed towards finding a solution and a quick restoration of constitutional order in the country.
In his goodwill message, Ban Ki Moon, UN Secretary General expressed concern over the situation in Burkina Faso, but assured that the world body “will continue to encourage all parties to reach an agreement as soon as possible for peaceful and civilian-led transition leading to democratic elections in a timely fashion.”
“Regional and global cooperation and solidarity will be crucial. The same is true for our efforts to address the Ebola crisis,” said the UN chief in the message read on his behalf by Mohamed Ibn Chambas, special representative and Head of the UN Office in West Africa. “Ebola is a major regional and global emergency that demands a massive and immediate global response,” said Chambas, a former president of the ECOWAS Commission.
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Tags: Blaise Compaoré Ebola ECOWAS John Mahama Kadré Desire Ouédraogo Orphaned Children WHO
