Africa’s first elected woman president, who stepped down four years ago, recognizes the errors in the initial response to coronavirus because they replicate the mistakes made when EBOLA hit West Africa in 2014 and killed more than 11 000 people.

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf says her 12 years at the helm in Liberia – and particularly dealing with EBOLA – taught her that the crisis can only be saved with courage and concerted action.

The United Nations World Health Organisation, the United States government and her counterparts the Guinea and Sierra Leone defeated EBOLA together.

She’s confident that with solidarity, COVID 19 will also be beaten

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European rescuers reached them after they’d spent hours in the water — too late to prevent a number of deaths.

The migrants were packed into two rubber boats that were wrecked.

One of them suffered engine failure and the other began to deflate.

They came from Sudan, Mali, Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Liberia, Algeria and Egypt.

Medicines Sans Frontiers provided help to the survivors who clung to floating wreckage.

They included pregnant women, children and babies – 

some of whom suffered serious chemical burns from petrol in the water.

The organization says some of the the migrants are returned to detention camps in Libya where they are held in deplorable conditions.

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The drugs from Latin America were packed in boxes labelled halal meat.

The Liberian-registered Vega Mercury  was carrying frozen meat from Brazil and had previously docked in Valencia, Spain.

It was due to offload in Algeria’s western port of Oran but suspicions were raised when the captain refused to dock for three days.

Acting on a tip-off from Spanish authorities , the Algerian coastguard forced the boat into port.

Algeria has identified drug trafficking as a top national security threat linked to militancy in the region and put its powerful army in charge of fighting it.

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The remoteness of the area, which has made access difficult for them, militates against the haemorrhagic disease spreading.

This is the ninth Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo since the virus was identified there 42 years ago.

Medical teams say they’ve developed a successful model for preventing the spread of the disease carried by contact with human body fluids.

They’ve also learned valuable lessons from the world’s worst Ebola outbreak that killed 11 000 people in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea four years ago 

Teams from the World Health Organisation and Medecins Sans Frontiers are on the ground in Bikoro, in northwest DRC, applying their experience.  

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With 21 suspicious illnesses and 17 deaths, the World Health Organization has released $1M in emergency funds.

Two of the five samples taken from the iIkoko Iponge health facility near Bikoro in Equateur Province these past five weeks have tested positive for the viral haemorrhagic fever Ebola.

There have been 17 deaths from in  the northwestern DRC.

Local authorities have limited health facilities and rely on international aid and supplies.

A group of specialists from the WHO and Medecines Sans Frontiers are moving to the area to scale response efforts.

Ebola killed four people in an outbreak in the Congo last year. 

In 2014 Ebola killed 11 000 people in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. 

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Mengistu Haile Mariam, who presided over the deaths of thousands in Ethiopia’s Red Terror,  is but one of many ousted African leaders sheltering in exile.

Gambia’s Yahya Jammeh is the latest Africa ejected by his country.

He’s been taken in by Equatorial Guinea.

Blaize Campaore is in Ivory Coast after Burkina Faso had enough of his 27-year rule.

Charles Taylor of Liberia and Hissen Habre of Chad are both serving lengthy prison sentences.

Mobutu Sese Seko of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda’s Idi Amin both died in exile after being deposed.

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The report in the New England Journal 0f Medicine  is the first full account of a large-scale effort to test what could be the first vaccine against Ebola.

The outbreak of the highly contagious and often deadly virus killed more than 11 000 people, mainly in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, as it swept West Africa from late 2013 to 2016.

The phase II study involved 1 500 people in Monrovia, Liberia.

After one month, 84 percent of recipients of the first vaccines developed an antibody response. At one year, 80 percent still had this protection.

For the second vaccine , 71 percent developed an antibody response, and 64 percent still had such a response at one year, when the trial ended.

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He’ll visit Ebola for talks with Africa’s only woman president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and move to Madagascar for the summit of French speaking countries.

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Premier Justin Trudeau’s office is saying his safari is designed to strengthen relations with African countries and advance issues like the rights of women and girls, health, and peace and security.

Canada and Benin are co-sponsoring a resolution at the Francophonie summit against child brides and forced marriage.

Canada has given $24 million in development aid to Liberia and pitched in to the tune of $130 million to fight the Ebola outbreak two year ago that struck Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.

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Addressing the Pan African Parliament in Midrand, Victor Bockarie Foh says beating the deadly virus shows the need for an African rapid reaction medical presence.

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Victor Bockarie Foh says Sierra Leone understands how terrifying the Ebola outbreak was in his country and neighboring Guinea and Liberia.

So it has made peace with fellow Africans shunning the victims or being slow to come to their assistance.

He says the Pan African Parliament can play a role in building continental unity to prevent a recurrence of this.

For says Sierra Leon has ratified legislation to give the PAP lawmaking powers.

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It  warns against complacency and cautions that male survivors can infect their sexual partners for up to a year after recovering.

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The decision by WHO’s Ebola emergency committee comes following flare-ups that emerged in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone after authorities declared virus transmission over.

The announcement ends the international emergency declaration and the WHO urges that any restrictions put on the affected countries be lifted.

Vice chairman of the WHO Ebola emergency committee Robert Steffen says the organization’s current battle against Zika in no way dictated its decision to declare the Ebola emergency over.

He says flare-ups of new Ebola cases are not linked to the original chains of transmission dating back to December 2013.

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