At the just concluded ECOWAS Extra-ordinary Summit on Ebola and the crisis in Burkina Faso, which held in Accra, Ghana, more members of the Economic Community of West African States have announced financial contributions to the tune of $7.7m to the Regional Solidarity Fund to fight Ebola.
In a statement on Frida, it said that Nigeria, which had earlier contributed $3.5m to the Fund, pledged additional $1m and affirmed its willingness to make 500 health volunteers available to help fight the disease in affected ECOWAS countries.
The statement said, “Cote d’Ivoire, which had earlier contributed $1m to the Fund, was joined at the summit by Senegal which announced a contribution of $1m, while Benin Republic pledged $400,000, Sierra Leone $250,000, Burkina Faso $150,000 and Niger Republic and Mali $200,000 each.
“ECOWAS has already donated $1m to each to the three Member States within the context of the multi-sectoral coordinated response to defeat the disease.”
It added that during the summit, the West African Economic Monetary Union presented a cheque of $1.5m to the Chairman of the Authority of ECOWAS Heads of State and Government and Ghana’s President, Dr. John Mahama, to strengthen the Ebola fight in the three most affected ECOWAS member States; Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Nigeria and Senegal had been declared Ebola free by the World Health Organisation having curtailed and stopped the transmission of the outbreak which has claimed about 5,000 lives from the estimated 13,000 reported cases mainly in the three severely affected countries.
The regional leaders in a communiqué at the end of the summit urged member states to contribute logistics, medical and military personnel to enhance support, security and response capacities to the affected countries and conduct extensive public education to prevent stigmatisation of affected persons and stop the spread of the disease. Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
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