Sunday Times 2
IMF unblocks cash as desperate west Africa awaits Ebola aid
View(s):MONROVIA, Sept 27 (AFP) -The International Monetary Fund fast-tracked $130 million (102.5 million euros) in aid Friday to fight the Ebola epidemic after the governments of the worst-hit countries in west Africa said they were desperately counting on promises of global aid to be backed up with cash.
Health workers slightly open the gate of Island Hospital in order to allow a man to deliver food to his son suffering from the Ebola virus in Monrovia (AFP)
The IMF’s executive board said it wanted to help Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone respond to the rapidly spreading outbreak that has killed some 3,000 people since December.
US President Barack Obama said west Africa had been “overwhelmed” by the crisis.
“Public health systems are near collapse,” Obama told a global health summit at the White House.
He warned that the disease was causing economic growth to slow in the region and putting huge strain on governments.
The UN has estimated that nearly one billion dollars will be required to effectively fight the disease and funding has been slow to materialise.
The government of Liberia, the hardest-hit nation with almost 1,700 deaths, welcomed pledges of help from world leaders gathered at the UN but warned it was losing the trust of its own people as the crisis escalated. “We are happy to hear that the entire world now understands the urgency of the reaction to the threat of Ebola,” Liberian Information Minister Lewis Brown told AFP, speaking before the IMF funding decision.