Posted on 08/23/2014 4:40:49 AM PDT by Covenantor
Senegal Blocks Liberia Aid Flight
Dakar - Regional humanitarian hub Senegal said on Friday it had blocked a regional UN aid plane from landing and was banning all further flights to and from countries affected by Ebola, potentially hampering the emergency response to the epidemic.
A number of aid agencies have their regional headquarters in politically stable Senegal. Both medical charity MSF and the United Nations, which are leading efforts to contain a West African Ebola epidemic that has killed at least 1 350 people, had planned to operate regional flights from the country.
The World Health Organisation has repeatedly said it does not recommend travel or trade restrictions for countries affected by Ebola, saying such measures could heighten food and supply shortages.
"We have strengthened our protection strategy by suspending services that link us to countries affected by Ebola since yesterday," said Senegal's tourism and air transport minister, Abdoulaye Diouf Sarr.
Senegal's southern land border with Guinea had also been shut, he said.
Dakar's interior ministry said that the closure referred only to Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia and not to Nigeria, where substantially fewer cases of Ebola have been reported. Senegal has reported no confirmed cases of Ebola.
Asked by Reuters whether there would be exceptions for humanitarian flights, Health and Social Action Minister Awa Marie Coll Seck said: "When we adopt new measures we implement them and afterwards we will see if there are exceptions."
A regional flight coming to the capital Dakar carrying aid workers from Liberia's capital Monrovia via Freetown and Conakry was prevented from landing on Thursday, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Sarr confirmed that the flight was prevented from landing. He said the plane's flight origin had been given as Mali's Bamako and not Monrovia.
A source at the World Food Programme, which operates the United Nations Humanitarian Air Service flights, confirmed that its flights would be suspended until further notice. The daily regional service began on 16 Aug and three flights were due to leave from Dakar this week, a provisional schedule showed.
Catastrophe
Medecins sans Frontieres had also sought permission to operate a regional service but Senegal refused permission, citing "elevated risk", according to a document issued by its aviation body ANACIM dated 21 August and seen by Reuters.
"This is a catastrophe. We need a better response but there's no way for us to do it," said an official at an organisation affected by the flight disruption.
The current Ebola epidemic is the worst in history and has hit hardest in countries whose health systems are ill-equipped to cope with it.
Like Sierra Leone and Liberia where new cases are rising fastest, Senegal has a low ratio of doctors to its population with just one for more than 17 000 people, according to political risk research company DaMina Advisors.
Other African countries have tightened travel restrictions this week in an effort to contain the outbreak. Chad closed its border with Nigeria and South Africa said it was banning all travellers from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone from entering its territory, barring its own citizens.
The noose continues to tighten for Liberia, especially for the poor souls trapped in cordoned areas of West Point and Dolo in Monrovia.
"A source at the World Food Programme, which operates the United Nations Humanitarian Air Service flights, confirmed that its flights would be suspended until further notice. The daily regional service began on 16 Aug and three flights were due to leave from Dakar this week, a provisional schedule showed."
Bleedin’ plague ping
Bring Out Your Dead
Post to me or FReep mail to be on/off the Bring Out Your Dead ping list.
The purpose of the “Bring Out Your Dead” ping list (formerly the “Ebola” ping list) is very early warning of emerging pandemics, as such it has a high false positive rate.
So far the false positive rate is 100%.
At some point we may well have a high mortality pandemic, and likely as not the “Bring Out Your Dead” threads will miss the beginning entirely.
*sigh* Such is life, and death...
These countries have been enabled by western do-gooders who took care of those who are ill but didn't demand that countries such as Liberia develop a capacity to take care of themselves. That's just wrong.
Humanity would've been better served if the people who were sent there were involved in training, not care. JMHO
Western “do gooders” as you venomous lyrics call them are not the problem. Continous fighting and internal violence renders these countries to fractuous to field a coherent response.
Just during the time I was in the military, America advised US citizens to flee Liberia three times, and sent Military escorts to help our people evacuate on two of those occaisions.
You may be pathological perturbed by philanthropy, but philanthropy didn’t make this mess.
Venomously spellchecker causes more mistakes than it corrects.
A link to this thread has been posted on the Ebola Surveillance Thread
If they could set up a border point with this simple rule: what goes out does not return. Strictly one-way. Then the supplies could be sent to the other side, and even some personnel, although they would be there for the duration.
As for flights in and out, the points of origin and stops would likely have to be in non-infected countries.
Still, with the devastating impact being added to the list of affected nations might have on fragile economies, they pretty much have to guard their population as best they can from people coming in.
I think they may be ignoring the economic impact of being a distribution hub for medical supplies, but that is just my opinion. It is their country.
How did you draw that conclusion? What I stated is that those who are there "to help" aren't helping, they're enabling the population to not learn to care for itself. Their help would be better directed to preparing the population to be self reliant.
Didn't Jesus say something about teaching people how to fish, instead of just giving the fish to them?
Okay, you both oppose philanthropy and are pathologically incapable of understanding how violent people organized into little armies complete with rockets, mortars, and artillery limits the ability of the citizenry to take care of themselves.
The only ways the people of Liberia can obtain stability would be breaking into multiple smaller nations, one side eliminates the three or four other sides through genocide, and outside nation conquers the lot and grinds them under heel, or God intervenes. Period.
Which one of those ways can some kid in school right now bring about?
You personally seem do be demanding that good men do nothing and just let people die. Unless you want the USA to go in there as a colonial power. Save the ragged blighters from themselves, eh wot?
Which is it?
I’m saying that good men should go in there and teach the residents hygeine and medical skills to stop the spread of disease. How is that not philantrophic? Are you happy with the way this is coming down, with all of those aid workers leaving now, so the people have to fend for themselves without the knowledge they need?
Apart from that oversight, they're basically doing what we should be doing.
Thanks for the ping!
You’re Welcome, Alamo-Girl!
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