Ebola-wracked Liberia staring into the abyss
What you need to know:
- Many observers of the country’s latest devastating crisis, while stopping short of talk of war, worry about the heightened risk of unrest in a country stalked by death.
- A humanitarian worker, speaking on condition of anonymity, reflects growing concern among politicians, analysts and health care workers over the possibility of a “social explosion”.
MONROVIA, Tuesday
With its collapsed health service, sick and poorly equipped security forces and broken economy, Ebola-hit Liberia finds itself on the brink of complete societal breakdown, experts warn.
The already impoverished west African state was on the slow road to recovery after 14 years of ruinous civil war ended in 2003, following the deaths of 250,000 people.
But Information Minister Lewis Brown recently warned that the epidemic, which has left more than 1,800 dead so far this year, risks plunging Liberians back into conflict.
Many observers of the country’s latest devastating crisis, while stopping short of talk of war, worry about the heightened risk of unrest in a country stalked by death.
“We have a lot to worry about. If we have thousands or tens of thousands more deaths, that’s going to have a very destabilising effect,” said Sean Casey, director of anti-Ebola operations in Liberia for the International Medical Corps (IMC).
SOCIAL EXPLOSION
A humanitarian worker, speaking on condition of anonymity, reflects growing concern among politicians, analysts and health care workers over the possibility of a “social explosion”.
“There is the fear, frustration, anger at the impotence of the government, and the associated economic destabilisation,” he said.
Monrovia, a sprawling, chaotic capital city of more than one million inhabitants, remains under control but gives the impression of a powder keg that could ignite at the slightest provocation.
Early Saturday, police came to investigate a body left lying in the street, the apparent victim of a murder.
A small crowd gathered, watching as a truck with the word “Ebola” emblazoned on the side pulled up, called just as a precaution.
Suddenly the crowd began yelling, pelting police officers with stones, and a brief scuffle ensued, in which at least six men were arrested.
The force assured locals that they would investigate claims that police had killed the man because he was out during the nighttime curfew.
The atmosphere is just as tense outside Ebola treatment centres, where large crowds of relatives gather, deprived of news of their loved ones.
“We beg the international community to find a solution before everything goes off here,” cries Kevin Kassah, a young man in the middle of one such angry crowd. (AFP)
