UN:Secretary-General Welcomes World Solidarity in Ebola Response.
12 September 2014
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| Department of Public Information • News and Media Division • New York |
Calls for Greater Support to Affected Countries.
The Secretary-General
warmly welcomes the announcement by the Cuban Government that it will be
sending 165 medical personnel to Sierra Leone soon to assist in the
response to Ebola.
In addition, the African
Union has begun to mobilize medical personnel for the response, and the
Government of Ghana has agreed to use Accra as a key hub for flights
into and out of Monrovia. Offers of cash, equipment and personnel from
Governments, non-governmental organizations and the private sector have
also begun to materialize.
We are also grateful for
the continued support of the United States Government. Last week, the
United States Agency for International Development announced plans to
make an additional $75 million available. More than 100 experts, most
of them from the United States Center for Disease Control and
Prevention, are deployed to the region in an effort to prevent, detect
and halt the virus’s spread.
The Government of the
United Kingdom also announced that British military and humanitarian
experts will set up a medical treatment centre for victims of the Ebola
outbreak in Sierra Leone.
The Secretary-General
welcomes these signs of solidarity, particularly the deployment of
skilled medical teams. He calls on more countries and organizations to
move swiftly to support the Governments of the countries affected,
through the Road Map of the World Health Organization (WHO) and a
complete overview of requirements that will be released by the Office
for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Geneva on 16
September.
As you will recall, the
Secretary-General has held a number of calls with world leaders seeking
their support for the countries most affected — Guinea, Liberia and
Sierra Leone. He continues to reach out to leaders around the world on
this issue.
The Secretary-General
also renews his call for countries to refrain from closing their borders
to people coming from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, and for
airlines and shipping companies to maintain transport links. Isolating
the countries risks causing more harm and delaying efforts to stop the
Ebola virus, rather than preventing its spread.
On Monday, the
Secretary-General activated the United Nations crisis response mechanism
for managing a system wide crisis, and instructed all United Nations
heads of agencies and departments to give top priority to working
together in support of a unified, effective response. Our United
Nations teams on the ground are engaged in active support of the
national efforts, providing health services, food, supplies and outreach
to communities.
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For information media • not an official record
