ECOWAS has bemoaned the humanitarian and economic impact of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) on the three most affected countries in West African, calling for an urgent global intervention to reverse the trend.

 

The President of Ghana and the Chairman of the Authority of ECOWAS Heads of States, John Mahama, yesterday, in Accra, Ghana, at the opening of an Extra-ordinary Session of the Authority said there was need to step up measures in order to reverse the snowballing effects of the disease on the three Ebola affected countries and the entire West Africa.

 

He argued: “Because the economies of all the nations in the sub-region are connected, the suffering will resound throughout all of West Africa, including the countries without any recorded cases of Ebola.”

 

Reflecting on the toil of the disease on human lives, the ECOWAS chairman remarked that apart from the high mortality level, the ancillary effects such as the huge number of orphaned children and loss of income were major setbacks to the rehabilitation of the survivals of Ebola.

 

Mahama brought to fore the dilemma of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, saying that they were just recovering from the devastation of prolonged wars and crisis when the scourge of Ebola surfaced.

 

Also, at the meeting, the President of the Republic of Benin, Yayi Boni, announced that the ECOWAS had made a donation of $ 1.5 million to the three countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

 

The United Nations Secretary General, who was represented by Dr. Mohammed Ibn Chambers, the African Representative to the UN, echoed the need for the global community to continue its support to the countries as he decried the economic, political and security implications of the disease.