Liberia gives food in slum sealed to stop Ebola

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

By JONATHAN PAYE-LAYLEH and KRISTA LARSON

MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) — Government officials handed out bags of rice and sachets of drinking water Thursday to residents of an impoverished slum in Liberia's capital where tens of thousands of people have been barricaded in an effort to stop the spread of Ebola.

International aid workers warned that more help was needed as the country battles not only the virulent disease but also hunger as travel restrictions have blocked food from getting to parts of the seaside capital.

In the tense township of West Point, hundreds of residents lined up to receive government provisions a day after authorities put up barbed wire barricades and enforced a blockade of the area that kept market traders from entering or leaving.

Prices were skyrocketing inside the community on a peninsula, with the price of water quadrupling in a matter of days in the slums where there is no clean running water amid steamy temperatures.

FULL story at link.



West Point, one of the areas were the Ebola virus has claimed lives in Monrovia, Liberia, Thursday, Aug. 21, 2014. Calm returned Thursday to a slum in the Liberian capital that was sealed off in the government's attempt to halt the spread of Ebola, a day after clashes erupted between residents and security forces, but now the tens of thousands of residents are worried about getting food. (AP Photo/Abbas Dulleh)


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20140821/ebola-a022d3461e.html

[littlemissmartypants]

1. This is sad and I feel will become even more troubling.

Thanks for your post Omaha Steve.

Love, Peace and Shelter.
Lmsp

[jwirr]

2. This is heart breaking mostly because there is little else they can do to stop this illness.

Hopefully the humanitarian aid will be increased and something done about the water. The world cannot just stand back and starve them to death when they are already fighting this terrible battle with Ebola. It would be totally immoral.

[freshwest]

3. Tens of thousands kept there with little food or water in that heat? This is horrific!

[Skittles]

4. this is inhumane and sickening

there has to be a better way