Ban Ki-Moon applauds Prez. Mahama for showing leadership in Ebola fight

• Posted on September 27, 2014September 27, 2014
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

The UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon has commended President John Dramani Mahama for leading the fight against the spread of the deadly Ebola virus.

President Mahama in his address at the 69th UN General Assembly Thursday, September 25, made a passionate appeal to the international community to see Ebola as a world problem and not just a concern pertaining to Guinea, Sierra Leone or Liberia.

“Ebola is just not a Liberian problem. Ebola is not Sierra Leonean or Guinean problem. Ebola is a problem that belongs to the world because it’s a disease that knows no boundaries…We must erase the stigma,” Chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) told the world leaders.

At a meeting Friday, between the two leaders, Ban Ki-Moon also hailed the decision by government of Ghana to host the United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER), at the capital, Accra.

They also discussed upcoming elections in the ECOWAS region in 2015.

Update on Ebola The World Health Organization said the number of Ebola cases appears to have stabilized in Guinea — where the recent outbreak of the deadly virus first surfaced in March — but that there has been further deterioration in Sierra Leone.

The Geneva-based organization made the assessment as it released its latest figures on the number of people now thought to have died from the disease: 2,917.

The WHO said a total of 6,262 people from across Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal and Sierra Leone have been infected with the virus. On Wednesday, Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma warned that more needed to be done in his country or “the situation will rapidly deteriorate.”