Soldiers spill blood in Liberian Ebola slum as riot breaks out over the quarantine of 50,000 residents

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT



Entire West Point slum quarantined after residents looted Ebola unit there

Liberian President also orders nighttime curfew across the country

West Africa's Ebola outbreak has killed at least 1,229 people so far

Fears grow that the virus has spread to Congo after 10 deaths there



Liberian soldiers opened fire on residents of a slum in their country's capital city today after it was locked down in an effort to contain the spread of Ebola virus.

People ran screaming as soldiers from the country's Ebola Task Force brutally enforced a quarantine of Monrovia's West Point district ordered by the country's president last night.

As the violence erupted in Liberia, hundreds of miles away a team of experts was meanwhile dispatched to a remote part of of Congo where 10 people died after suffering Ebola like symptoms.

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A Liberian boy reels with pain after apparently being shot during clashes with Liberian security forces in the West Point area of Monrovia which has been placed into quarantine by order of the country's president

The boy screams in agony: The whole West Point slum has been turned into an open-air isolation ward

A Liberian Army soldier, part of the Ebola Task Force, swings his truncheon at a fleeing woman

Residents try to get away from a soldier who looks ready to start firing his rifle into the air at West Point

A soldier prepares to swing at a youth as others are pushed back by security forces enforcing the quarantine

The youngster tries to dodge as the soldier swings his club during the crackdown on slum residents

It was not immediately clear if the victims had died of Ebola, but a witness said they had all suffered fever, diarrhoea and bleeding from the ears and nostrils - all symptoms of the deadly virus.

Fears of the spread of Ebola is consuming West Africa. The latest outbreak - the worst ever - is believed to have started in Guinea but, so far, Liberia has been worst hit.

The chaos in Monrovia erupted after protesters surrounded the home of the West Point's commissioner, Miatta Flowers, blaming her for the decision to turn their neighbourhood into an open-air isolation ward.

Soldiers carrying assault rifles lashed out at residents with telescopic truncheons and at least one man was shot as a security team moved in to evacuate Mrs Flowers.

A resident of the West Point district told the Associated Press by phone that security forces were firing into the air to disperse crowds angry over the quarantine measures.

Fear and tension have been building in Monrovia for days and West Point has been one of the flashpoints. Many residents feel the government has not done enough to protect them from the spread of Ebola.

West Point Commissioner Miata Flowers is escorted out of the slum by members of Liberia's Ebola Task Force

Mrs Johnson's home had been surrounded by protesters who blamed her for their neighbourhood lockdown

Some relatives of Mrs Flowers are led away from the slum, which has been sealed off by soldiers and police

Tensions came to a head over the weekend when a mob attacked and looted an Ebola screening centre, accusing officials of bringing sick people from all over Monrovia into their neighbourhood.

Dozens of people waiting to be screened fled in the chaos. Looters made off with items, including bloody sheets and mattresses that could further spread the virus.

In many areas of the capital, meanwhile, dead bodies have been in the streets for hours, sometimes days, even though residents asked that the corpses be picked up by health ministry workers wearing protective gear.

Earlier today, riot police and soldiers sealed off West Point, a peninsula where the Mesurado River meets the Atlantic Ocean, with makeshift barricades built from piles of wood and barbed wire.

Few roads go into the area, and a major road runs along the base of the isthmus, serving as a barrier between the neighbourhood and the rest of Monrovia. Ferries to the area have been halted, and a coast guard boat was patrolling the waters around the peninsula.

At least 50,000 people live on the half-mile-long point, which is one of the poorest and most densely populated neighbourhoods of the capital.

Sanitation is poor even in the best of times, and defecation in the streets and beaches is a major problem. Mistrust of authorities is rampant and many people live without electricity or access to clean water.

Trapped: Liberian security forces blockade an area around the West Point slum as the government clamps down on the movement of people to prevent the spread of the Ebola virus in the city of Monrovia

Outbreak: Liberia security forces in riot gear, blockade an area near West Point after the country's president gave the order last night that no one was allowed to leave the impoverished community

Soldiers patrol the areas around West Point in a 4x4: The unprecedented move has trapped 50,000 people

Liberia's strict new measures came as medical authorities there said three infected doctors treated with an experimental drug were showing signs of recovery, although it was not certain if it was thanks to the drug.



Announcing the quarantine, as well as a wider curfew, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said last night: 'We have been unable to control the spread due to continued denials, cultural burying practices, disregard for the advice of health workers and disrespect for the warnings by the government.

'As a result and due to the large population concentration the disease has spread widely in Monrovia and environs.'

'May God bless us all and save the state,' she later added.

God help us: Members of the Church of Aladura pray on the beach in Monrovia, Liberia. They said they were praying for God to rescue Liberia from its current crisis

Keeping the faith: Liberia has now recorded the highest number of deaths from the recent Ebola outbreak

The latest outbreak of Ebola in West Africa - the worst ever - has already killed more than 1,200 people in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, and experts warn it is not yet under control.

Congo does not share a border with any of the countries already known to be affected by the epidemic, so reports of a potential outbreak there are a serious cause for concern.

Highly-contagious, Ebola can kill up to 90 per cent of its victims. There is no known vaccine and the few forms of treatment that exist are experimental.

Congo has already suffered several outbreaks since the first case of the disease was detected near the Ebola River in the north of the country in 1976.

Map and chart showing cases of Ebola across West Africa

A medical team was earlier today dispatched to DRC's Equateur province to investigate whether the virus has re-emerged in the area.

'An illness is spreading in Boende [a town in Equateur] but we don't know the origin,' said Michel Wangi, a spokesman for the governor's office.

'The government has sent a team of experts from the INRB (National Institute of Biomedical Research) this morning led by the health minister (Felix) Kabange Numbi and acting governor Sebastian Impeto.'

A professor accompanying the delegation in the presidential plane confirmed that they were en route this morning to find out 'the exact nature of the illness that caused the Boende deaths'.

Lockdown: Liberian soldiers walk through the West Point slum in Monrovia, the 50,000 residents of which were last night quarantined by order the country's president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, to contain the spread of Ebola

Anger: These soldiers were deployed yesterday to help medics find and retrieve items looted from the MV Massaquoi Elementary school that was used as an Ebola isolation unit it was attacked on Saturday

Liberian nurses retrieve a looted generator stolen from the M V Massaquoi Elementary school isolation unit

West Africa's Ebola outbreak has killed at least 1,229 people in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, and more than 2,240 have been infected, according to the World Health Organisation.

The fastest rising number of cases has been reported in Liberia, with at least 466 dead.

Authorities in Liberia have struggled to treat and isolate the sick, in part because of widespread fear that treatment centres are places where people go to die.

Many sick people have hidden in their homes, relatives have sometimes taken their loved ones away from health centres, and mobs have occasionally attacked health workers.

Saturday's attack on the observation centre in West Point was triggered by fears that people with the disease were being brought there from all over the country, the Information Ministry said yesterday.

All the patients who fled are now being screened at a hospital in Monrovia, and those who tested positive are being treated, the ministry said. It was unclear how many of the 37 who fled were confirmed with Ebola.

Liberian authorities also are searching for a pastor who fled an Ebola treatment centre outside Monrovia. State radio asked the public to look out for the preacher but did not say whether he had tested positive for Ebola.

Rubbish litters the waterfront of the West Point slum: The area's high population density and poor sanitation have made it the ideal breeding ground for the Ebola virus outbreak which is currently gripping West Africa

Children do their chores along the beach at West Point: West Africa's Ebola outbreak has killed at least 1,229 people in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, and more than 2,240 have been infected, says the WHO

Three Liberians are currently being treated with the last known doses of ZMapp, a drug that had earlier been given to two infected Americans and a Spanish priest. The Americans are also improving, but the Spaniard died.

'The medical professionals have informed the Liberian information ministry their progress is "remarkable",' the ministry said in a statement, adding that the patients are showing 'very positive signs of recovery.'

Experts have said it is unclear if ZMapp, which had never before been tested in humans, is effective. Even if it is, the California-based maker has said more supplies won't be available for months.

Infection control: A Liberian medical worker disinfects a looted mattress taken from the MV Massaquoi Elementary school isolation unit, which could have harboured and spread the Ebola virus

News: Alfred Sirleaf, managing editor of the 'Daily Talk Chalk Board' explains his headline story to his audience on the contributions between China and the USA to Liberia to combat the deadly Ebola virus in the country

In the meantime, experts say the best way to stop the spread of Ebola in West Africa is to identify the sick, isolate them from the healthy and monitor everyone with whom they have been in contact.

The WHO said it is seeing some encouraging signs in other parts of West Africa. In Guinea, people from villages that had previously rejected outside help were beginning to seek medical care, according to a WHO statement.

The statement said the situation is 'less alarming' in Guinea than in Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Although the outbreak began in Guinea, Liberia has now recorded the highest number of deaths and Sierra Leone the most cases.



An air hostess wears a mask as she walks in front of a temperature monitor at Yangon Airport in Myanmar, where a 22-year-old has been quarantined after returning from West Africa with a fever and malaise

The WHO also said there is 'cautious optimism' that the spread of the virus in Nigeria can be stopped.

'LOCAL HERBALIST TO BLAME FOR EBOLA SPREAD TO SIERRA LEONE' West Africa's Ebola outbreak need never have spread from Guinea, but for a herbalist in a remote village in Sierra Leone who claimed she had powers to treat the virus, an official in her country said. 'She was claiming to have powers to heal Ebola. Cases from Guinea were crossing into Sierra Leone for treatment,' Mohamed Vandi, the top medical official in the hard-hit district of Kenema, told AFP. 'She got infected and died. During her funeral, women around the other towns got infected.' Ebola has killed more than 1,220 people since it emerged in southern Guinea at the start of the year, spreading first to Liberia and cutting a gruesome and gory swathe through eastern Sierra Leone since May. The virus is highly infectious through exposure to bodily fluids, and its early rapid spread in west Africa was attributed in part to relatives touching victims during traditional funeral rites. The herbalist's mourners fanned out across the rolling hills of the Kissi tribal chiefdoms, starting a chain reaction of infections, deaths, funerals and more infections. Advertisement

Late last night, health authorities there announced a fifth Ebola death - a doctor who had treated a man who flew to Nigeria from Liberia while infected.

Dr Ameyo Stella Adadevoh, a consultant physician at First Consultants Medical Centre, Lagos, and a scion of one of Nigeria's most illustrious families, was the first to realise Patrick Sawyer had brought Ebola to the country.

Mr Sawyer had denied being infected but, after he tested negative for malaria and other diseases, Dr Adadevoh ordered that his blood to be tested for the killer virus.

The 58-year-old, a direct descendant of the first African ever to be ordained a bishop in the Anglican Church, is the first Nigerian doctor to have died from Ebola. So far, all Nigeria's recorded Ebola cases have been linked to Mr Sawyer and her diagnosis.

'The outbreak is not under control,' the WHO cautioned. 'As recent experience shows, progress is fragile, with a real risk that the outbreak could experience another flare-up.'

To try to stem the spread of Ebola, officials have imposed quarantines and travel restrictions on the sick and those in contact with them, sometimes shutting off entire villages and counties.