UNMEER [UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response] @UNMEER #EbolaResponse
UNMEER’s website is aggregating and presenting content from various sources including its own External Situation Reports, press releases, statements and what it titles “developments.” We present a composite below from the week ending 15 November 2014.

UNMEER External Situation Reports
UNMEER External Situation Reports are issued daily (excepting Saturday) with content organized under these headings:
– Highlights
– Key Political and Economic Developments
– Human Rights
– Response Efforts and Health
– Logistics
– Outreach and Education
– Resource Mobilisation
– Essential Services
– Upcoming Events
The “Week in Review” will present highly-selected elements of interest from these reports. The full daily report is available as a pdf using the link provided by the report date.

14 November 2014 |
Key Political and Economic Developments
1. UNMEER SRSG Anthony Banbury warned the UN General Assembly that EVD is an elusive disease that has just reappeared in Mali where it was thought to be under control, demonstrating the threat that the virus still poses to the region. He said the international community is having enough challenges trying to mobilize resources to respond to the crisis in hardest-hit Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea and any outbreaks in other countries would be “truly devastating.” He added that “Ebola is a fearsome enemy and we will not win by chasing it. We must get ahead of it.”
2. In a broadcast to the nation, the president of Liberia has announced that she will not renew the state of emergency. Nonetheless, many current measures will remain in place for now. The curfew will be reduced. The areas affected by EVD will continue to have tighter restrictions.
Human Rights
4. The Guinean government announced on 12 November the withdrawal of the troops that had been deployed in Womey (Nzérékoré prefecture) following the murders in September of an eight-member EVD education team by angry locals. In response, a group of human rights defenders, lawmakers and civil society activists confirmed the end of the hunger strike they had initiated to request the demilitarization of Womey and to demand the safe return of thousands of villagers they say have fled their homes because of it. The opposition may stage a new round of demonstrations in case its remaining grievances are not addressed by the government. Foremost among the opposition’s demands is the signing of the conclusion of the political dialogue process launched four months ago.
Response Efforts and Health
5. MSF says its treatment centres in Guinea will host three separate clinical trials. One involves using the blood of recovered EVD patients to treat sick people, and another will test two antiviral drugs. These are all experimental drugs that have not been through the usual lengthy process of testing on animals and healthy people. Trials will start next month, with initial results expected in February.
7. A representative of striking healthcare workers in Sierra Leone said about a quarter of them returned to work in an EVD clinic after health officials pledged to pay their allowances later this week. A full-scale strike would resume if the payments were not made by Friday, he said.
Essential Services
18. According to a UNDP study on the socio-economic impact of EVD, households’ purchasing power has decreased 20 per cent in Sierra Leone and 25 per cent in Liberia. This is caused by food price increases resulting from a slowdown in agricultural activities and reduced trade because of closed borders. Many farmers have deserted their fields because of movement restrictions and are unable to sell their produce, which is directly affecting their livelihoods. In Guinea, the government has been importing food, stemming potential price fluctuations and protecting people’s purchasing power.

13 November 2014 |
Key Political and Economic Developments
1. UNMEER SRSG Anthony Banbury has told the New York Times that, considering the changing situation on the ground, “we need to be more nimble and flexible. Instead of trying to build 100-bed facilities, I believe we need smaller facilities, more geographically dispersed, and to rely more on trained national medical professionals to provide the clinical care”, he said in the interview.
2. Some 600 EVD workers surrounded Liberia’s Ministry of Health Monday demanding back payment of salaries and entitlements dating from early September. The enraged workers, whose labors are essential to stemming the epidemic, shouted angrily for hours. In Sierra Leone, more than 400 health workers at the only Ebola treatment unit in the south of the country went on strike on Wednesday over unpaid risk allowances the government is meant to fund.
3. Liberia urged the United Nations on Wednesday not to reduce its peacekeeping force in the country, warning that the EVD epidemic is threatening peace and social cohesion. Liberia’s UN Ambassador Marjon Kamara appealed to the Security Council to extend the mission’s mandate for a year and put off consideration of a reduction in the force, which had just over 4,500 military personnel at the end of September. UN peacekeeping chief Hervé Ladsous said the United Nations supports extending the mission’s mandate until September 2015 and deferring a reduction of troops until health authorities report that the Ebola crisis is over.
4. In Mali, a doctor has tested positive for EVD. He works in the same private clinic in Bamako as the nurse that died of EVD on Tuesday. 186 contacts have been identified so far and are being monitored. Contact identification will continue. Around 20 MINUSMA troops that are being treated in the clinic for injuries sustained during their mission in the north of Mali are also being monitored for the virus. The likely source of the Bamako outbreak, a man from the town of Kouremale on the border with Guinea, was never tested for EVD. In a series of ceremonies that may have exposed many mourners to the virus, his highly contagious body was washed in a Bamako mosque and returned to Guinea for burial without precautions against EVD.
5. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon called on Asian countries to step up efforts in the global fight against EVD. He noted that Asia has more than half the world’s population. While the continent has not publicly recorded any cases, experts worry that border control measures and other preparations are insufficient and that Asian countries should be doing more to fight the outbreak in West Africa. He urged governments to help fill huge gaps in funding, equipment and medical personnel.
6. UN Special Envoy David Nabarro on Wednesday encouraged people to maintain travel and tourism to the EVD affected countries in West Africa. “It is not appropriate to say ‘Do not travel there because there is Ebola’”, he said. The United Nations have repeatedly urged airlines to maintain flights to the three countries to allow desperately-needed teams of doctors, nurses and health workers to travel there. Nabarro also made an appeal to combat stigmatization surrounding EVD by calling for a global social media campaign to express solidarity and prevent discrimination.
Response Efforts and Health
9. The Pentagon no longer plans to deploy the full 4,000 US troops to Liberia. The current 2,200 troops will grow to nearly 3,000 by mid-December. But the military does not expect more soldiers on the ground will be necessary.
10. In Liberia, UNMEER staff reported concern over an emerging repetitive pattern of violent EVD-outbreaks in remote communities – three locations in the bordering area between the Bong and Gbarpolu counties over a period of two weeks. Reaching these locations requires 3-4 hours trekking through the deep forest area and canoeing a river. It is expected that residents of the affected communities might become

12 November 2014 |
Key Political and Economic Developments
2. The United States on Tuesday proposed that the International Monetary Fund write off some $100 million in debt it is owed by Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone to free up more resources for those countries, the hardest hit by the EVD outbreak. The debt relief should enable the three impoverished West African countries to spend more on government services and to support their economies as they cope with the epidemic, officials said on condition of anonymity. The countries now owe the IMF a combined $372 million, of which $55 million comes due over the next two years.
4. The Canadian government is tightening restrictions on travellers from the affected countries in West Africa by imposing self-monitoring and quarantine measures. The policy announced Monday applies to all travellers from the affected countries. But because Canada had already stopped issuing visas to residents and nationals of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, the policy will mostly apply to returning healthcare workers and international staff who work for humanitarian aid groups.
Human Rights
6. Sierra Leone’s attorney general has defended as lawful and justified last week’s arrest of a prominent radio journalist who criticized the government’s handling of the EVD crisis. He accused the radio host David Tam-Baryoh of undermining the effort to stop the disease’s spread by making “disparaging and inflammatory statements” about the government’s work, that were likely “to incite public hatred, disaffection and instability.”
7. A group of Guinean politicians, civil society activists and private citizens went on hunger strike Tuesday to demand the safe return of thousands of villagers they say have fled their homes amid EVD-related unrest in the south. The action follows the murders in September of an eight-member EVD education team attacked by angry locals in Womey, a town at the epicentre of the deadly outbreak. The army has been deployed in the town since the killings and has been accused of human rights violations there. Many inhabitants are said to have fled to the surrounding forests in fear.
Response Efforts and Health
9. Sierra Leone will make a one-off payment of US$ 5,000 to the family of any health worker who dies as a result of treating an EVD patient, authorities said on Tuesday, as a sixth doctor in the country tested positive for the virus. The National Ebola Response Centre said the benefit would be paid retroactively to relatives of the more than 100 health workers who have died from the disease in Sierra Leone. That figure includes all five doctors who had previously tested positive.
Outreach and Education
20. MSF has launched an online training programme aimed at helping aid workers involved in fighting the EVD outbreak. The organization said its training platform was available to anyone wishing to gain a basic understanding of the virus and how it can be contained.
Essential Services
21. The rate of women dying in childbirth in West African countries hit by EVD is soaring, with as many as one in seven at risk of death as fear of contact with bodily fluids prevents people from helping them. The United Nations Population Fund estimates that 800,000 women in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia are due to give birth in the next 12 months. Of these, some 120,000 could face life-threatening complications if they do not get the emergency care they need.
22. Security forces in Liberia have been weakened by the EVD epidemic. Several police stations in the poorest parts of Monrovia have closed after officers became ill and/or died of EVD, while armed attacks and opportunistic crime have increased in the cities. In Nimba county, the crime rate has increased significantly.
23. The EVD outbreak erupted at a crucial period in the agricultural season for rice and other important food crops in Sierra Leone. Up to 40% of farms have been abandoned in the most affected areas, according to the International Fund for Agricultural Development. About 47% of surveyed farmers in Sierra Leone claimed that EVD is having considerable adverse effects on farming activities. Experts expect serious food shortages to hit the country in early 2015.

11 November 2014 |
Key Political and Economic Developments
1. Senegal has decided to reopen its border with Guinea and resume flights to Liberia and Sierra Leone. President Macky Sall said his country’s decision had come in line with the recommendations of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to reopen borders with states affected by EVD. However, he did not give a date for reopening the border with neighboring Guinea or resuming flights with Liberia or Sierra Leone.
2. The United Nations and leading international transport, trade and tourism organizations today expressed concern about the reported denial of medical care for ill seafarers on board ships that had previously called at ports in EVD-affected countries. The Travel and Transport Task Force called for international cooperation of governments and the transport sector in following the recommendations of the International Health Regulations Emergency Committee on Ebola, convened by WHO.
Human Rights
3. Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has ordered four soldiers and their commanding officer to be punished for their actions during a protest over an Ebola quarantine in August, in which one boy was shot dead and others were injured. The government also agreed to pay the boy’s family compensation.
4. On Saturday citizens in Coyah, Guinea, began protesting against contact tracers. Several incidents of vandalism were reported, and sensitization activities in this area were suspended. Protests also took place in Kaloum (Conakry) after the death of a woman thought to have EVD; youths started vandalizing the vehicle of Red Cross workers that had come to remove the body of the woman. The gendarmerie intervened to restore order and protect the officials of the Red Cross.
5. In Guinea, several deputies and human rights activists have begun a hunger strike at the Palais du Peuple. They are demanding the demilitarization of the town of Womey, where a group of EVD sensitizers were killed last September by angry residents.
Response Efforts and Health
6. MSF is calling for a change of strategy in the fight against EVD in Liberia, focusing on funding rapid response teams rather than large isolation units. It said that priority should be given to a more flexible approach that allows for rapid isolation and contact tracing in the case of new outbreaks, and that gets the regular healthcare system safely up and running again.
Essential Services
26. According to WFP, all areas of Liberia are affected by food insecurity. Households in the central zone that includes the counties of Nimba, Bong and Margibi are most frequently affected. This zone accounts for the bulk of EVD cases outside the capital, Monrovia. According to recent inter-agency assessments, food demand and supply has diminished due to quarantine measures. The price of imported rice in Liberia has increased since April, influenced by exchange rate depreciation. Cassava prices have remained stable.

10 November 2014
Key Political and Economic Developments
1. In an op-ed published by the Washington Post, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon cautions that even with reports of the rate of new cases beginning to slow down, we are still a long way off from ending this crisis. He stressed that the outbreak remains active, and that outbreak patterns often fluctuate. People are dying every day, and new infections continue. And no one can say with certainty what the coming weeks might bring. The Secretary-General went on to state that each day’s delay in intensifying the response adds greatly to the toll in lives, the cost of ending the outbreak, the social and economic impact, and the risk of the disease spreading to other countries. EVD, he said, will be beaten through a resolute and coordinated effort. We have initial evidence to prove that this can happen. But we must speed up efforts to first get the crisis under control and then bring it to an end.
Logistics
9. In Liberia, the humanitarian response is still being hampered by a shortage of funds for fuel, as well as by poor roads that have worsened due to the current heavy rains. Lack of sufficient vehicles is also complicating the distribution of relief supplies and transportation of EVD patients. Travel restrictions due to the EVD crisis have significantly increased food prices and prices of drugs in private drugstores, thus limiting access to food, health care and essential drugs.
Essential Services
18. In the three affected countries, many children are left with no supervision after their parents have succumbed to EVD. Orphaned children in Sierra Leone face harsher conditions than during the civil war, the Guardian reports. The minister of social welfare, gender and children’s affairs estimates the number of orphans at 2,600. UNICEF, however, puts the figures at 7,000 orphans.
19. There is a continuing need for food and livelihood assistance for people affected by EVD, as well as for the distribution of animal feeds. Food distribution to EVD affected communities under the health emergency response in Liberia is continuing to scale up. In addition to food distribution, partners are providing agricultural inputs and tools (such as rice, cassava sticks, pepper seeds and pesticides) and conducting trainings to increase awareness and improve hygiene and sanitation practices.

UNMEER site: Press Releases
:: Amid signs of new Ebola cases, UN health official tells Liberians ‘you must hunt the virus’
14 November 2014
A senior United Nations World Health Organization official warned reported that the number of Ebola cases in Liberia, which had recently shown some signs of decline, is starting to pick up again, most likely because “people are relaxing their guard.”

Defeating Ebola, ‘a fearsome,’ elusive enemy, requires scaling up response on the ground – UN
13 November 2014
There has been important progress made in the global fight against Ebola but a scaling-up in the overall response remains necessary if the deadly outbreak is to be fully stopped, top United Nations officials told the UN General Assembly today as they cautioned against complacency in tackling the disease.

Ebola: UN special envoy says combating stigma integral to overall crisis response
12 November 2014
The Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Ebola, Dr. David Nabarro, today made a passionate appeal to combat stigmatization surrounding the disease by calling for a global social media campaign to “express solidarity and to show we are anti-discrimination.”

Stopping Ebola as fast as possible is ‘number one priority’ – UN envoy
11 November 2014
The number one priority is to stop Ebola as fast as possible and “get ahead of the virus,” the chief of the United Nations emergency response mission said as the UN health agency today reported that efforts to contain the outbreak in West Africa are being hampered by cumbersome diagnostic tests.

West Africa ‘on brink’ of major food crisis in wake of Ebola outbreak – UN expert
11 November 2014
As Ebola continues to ravage West Africa, leaving more than 4,000 people dead, the region is now on the brink of a major food crisis, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food has warned today.

Ebola: reported denial of medical care on ships from West Africa draws UN concern
10 November 2014
United Nations and other leading international transport, trade and tourism organizations today expressed concern about the report denial of medical care for ill seafarers on board ships that had previously called at ports in Ebola-affected countries.

Ebola: UN chief hails progress in fight against virus, urges intensified response
9 November 2014
The world is on the “right track” to defeating Ebola as the infection rate of the deadly virus shows some signs of slowing in West Africa’s most affected areas, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon declared today as he urged the international community to remain constant in fighting the disease until it is completely extinguished.