KQ to resume flights to Ebola hit countries “once appropriate measures are put in place”, Uhuru Kenyatta says
The Kenya Airways Dreamliner B787 at JKIA. Many of Africa’s financially struggling airlines face the risk of running bankrupt should the US and the European Union impose travel bans on parts of the continent due to the Ebola menace. PHOTO | SALATON NJAU
What you need to know:
- Measures taken to contain the spread of Ebola to other countries in Africa “have isolated the affected countries and further hurt the people and economies of the region”.
- President Kenyatta called for urgent and sustained attention to the devastating Ebola crisis in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
President Uhuru Kenyatta on Wednesday said Kenya Airways will resume its flights to countries affected by Ebola “once appropriate measures are put in place”.
President Kenyatta, however, did not specify the steps that must be taken for the suspended flights to be restored.
In his maiden speech at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, President Kenyatta said suspension of Kenya Airways flights to some destinations in West Africa “followed a stark warning from the World Health Organisation”.
He acknowledged that the measures taken to contain the spread of Ebola to other countries in Africa “have isolated the affected countries and further hurt the people and economies of the region”.
“Our intention was not to do harm,” the President added, saying Kenya has contributed $1 million to efforts to control the Ebola outbreak.
President Kenyatta called for urgent and sustained attention to the devastating Ebola crisis in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
“Nothing in the immediate future requires a more urgent and determined response from the international community than the effort to stop and contain this devastating virus,” he said
The President welcomed the establishment of the United Nations Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER) to guide a collective global response.
