Liberia's leader has sacked ministers and senior government officials who defied an order to return to the west African nation to lead the fight against the deadly Ebola outbreak, her office said on Tuesday. President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf had told overseas ministers to return within a week as part of a state-of-emergency announcement on August 6, warning that extraordinary measures were needed "for the very survival of our state".
Sirleaf "directed that all officials occupying ministerial level positions or equivalent - senior and junior - managing directors, deputy/assistant directors or equivalent, commissioners et cetera who violated the orders are hereby relieved of their positions," her office said in a statement. It did not say how many ministers were affected or which ones had been fired. But a government insider clarified that only deputy ministers and senior officials were involved in the dismissal, and not cabinet-level ministers.
United Nations officials have pledged to step up efforts against the lethal tropical virus, which has infected more than 2,600 and killed 1,427 since the start of the year. The World Health Organisation said on Monday more than 120 health workers across west Africa have died during the "unprecedented" outbreak, and more than 240 had been infected.
The African Development Bank warned Tuesday the epidemic could cut economic output in the three worst-hit countries, as well as neighbouring Ivory Coast, by between one and 1.5 percent of gross economic product. "If people don't start worrying about agriculture, there is going to be a food crisis. That will be the first direct impact on farmers in this region," said president Donald Kaberuka. The UN's FAO echoed the warning, saying epidemic epicentre eastern Sierra Leone was facing a looming food crisis as the virus was killing off vital workers and quarantine measures were preventing "large-scale farming".
Meanwhile a second front has opened up in Africa's struggle with Ebola, after the Democratic Republic of Congo said on Tuesday it was preparing for a "battle of at least three months" after 13 people died after contracting the virus in the remote north-east. Congolese authorities said the outbreak concerned Zaire Ebola, the species that is ravaging west Africa, but said the two outbreaks were not linked. The United Nations' Ebola envoy David Nabarro, in Guinea's capital Conakry on Tuesday on the third leg of a tour of the region, has described the fight against the epidemic as a "war" which could take six more months.