Sierra Leone has imposed new curfews
in two northern districts after a spike
in new Ebola cases to the highest level
in months, President Ernest Bai Koroma
has said.
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“I have instructed the security to
institute chiefdom-level curfew and
restriction on movement from 6pm to
6am in Kambia and Port Loko districts,
with immediate effect,” Koroma said in
a televised address on Friday.
Offenders will be detained and
prosecuted if they violate the new
measures, which will be in effect for
the next 21 days. The two districts lie
on the route between the capital
Freetown and the Guinea border and
have been the focus of recent cases.
The 18-month-long Ebola epidemic has
killed more than 11,100 people in West
Africa, although weekly numbers of new
cases have fallen sharply from last
year’s peaks. One of the three worst-
affected countries, Liberia, was
declared Ebola-free in May.
Sierra Leone and Guinea, however, are
still regularly reporting several new
cases daily, prompting both to extend
emergency measures.
Health workers say access is difficult in
the maze of islands and creeks in the
region, where dirt paths are often
flooded in the current wet season.
Some residents are not complying with
anti-Ebola measures and more than a
dozen Ebola contacts have escaped
quarantine, according to a report by
the National Ebola Response Centre
(NERC) in May.
“There will be night patrols, so the idea
is to stop people from escaping using
vehicles. If they run away on foot they
can only get so far,” said OB Sisay, a
NERC official involved in “Operation
Northern Push” for Port Loko and
Kambia.
Oxfam’s country director Thynn Thynn
Hlaing warned that the new measures
would only work if residents were
involved in designing and implementing
them.
There have also been breaches of anti-
Ebola regulations in the capital. A
member of parliament, Alie Badara
Munu, was arrested for participating in
a traditional burial in May.
Washing rituals for the dead can
spread the virus, contained within body
fluids such as blood and sweat. Sierra
Leone reported seven confirmed cases
on June 9, the highest count since
March 24, according to the NERC.
But in many other districts of the small
agricultural country of 6 million people,
there are no more Ebola patients.