File Photo: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon (Reuters)
Conakry:
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon arrived in the Guinean capital Conakry today on the last day of his tour of west African countries hit by the world's worst outbreak of Ebola.
The UN chief was greeted at the airport by Guinea's Foreign and Health Ministers Francois Louceny Fall and Remy Lamah.
Several officials involved in the drive to end the epidemic in Guinea were also on hand at the airport.
Ban, who did not speak to reporters, was to hold a news conference later Saturday after meeting with Guinean President Alpha Conde.
He was to head next to the Malian capital Bamako to wrap up his tour.
With the United Nations having faced criticism for an allegedly slow response to the virus, Ban started the tour in Liberia, the worst-hit country, after flying in from Ghana, where the UN Ebola mission is headquartered.
He pledged to help the Ebola-ravaged countries rebuild their health systems.
Ban is accompanied by Margaret Chan, head of the World Health
Organization; David Nabarro, the UN coordinator for the fight against Ebola; and Anthony Banbury, the head of the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response or UNMEER.
The Ebola epidemic, which broke out in Guinea in December 2013, has killed more than 6,900 people, almost all of them in west Africa.
Liberia tops the number of fatalities at 3,290 deaths but Sierra Leone earlier this month overtook it as the country with the most infections.
The fight to contain the virus has often come up against attitudinal obstacles.
On Friday, hundreds of angry youths prevented the medical aid group Doctors Without Borders (MSF) from setting up an Ebola treatment unit in a southern town, saying they did not want to be infected by the virus.
MSF, which has spearheaded the fight against Ebola, was setting up the unit in Kissidougou, a town in the southern forest near where the outbreak began.
Police commissioner Alfred Houlemou told AFP by telephone from the scene that the youths "raided the facility, notably the MSF tents, and they torched tarpaulins and broke chairs to chase out the health personnel and officials."
The UN chief was greeted at the airport by Guinea's Foreign and Health Ministers Francois Louceny Fall and Remy Lamah.
Several officials involved in the drive to end the epidemic in Guinea were also on hand at the airport.
Ban, who did not speak to reporters, was to hold a news conference later Saturday after meeting with Guinean President Alpha Conde.
He was to head next to the Malian capital Bamako to wrap up his tour.
With the United Nations having faced criticism for an allegedly slow response to the virus, Ban started the tour in Liberia, the worst-hit country, after flying in from Ghana, where the UN Ebola mission is headquartered.
He pledged to help the Ebola-ravaged countries rebuild their health systems.
Ban is accompanied by Margaret Chan, head of the World Health
Organization; David Nabarro, the UN coordinator for the fight against Ebola; and Anthony Banbury, the head of the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response or UNMEER.
The Ebola epidemic, which broke out in Guinea in December 2013, has killed more than 6,900 people, almost all of them in west Africa.
Liberia tops the number of fatalities at 3,290 deaths but Sierra Leone earlier this month overtook it as the country with the most infections.
The fight to contain the virus has often come up against attitudinal obstacles.
On Friday, hundreds of angry youths prevented the medical aid group Doctors Without Borders (MSF) from setting up an Ebola treatment unit in a southern town, saying they did not want to be infected by the virus.
MSF, which has spearheaded the fight against Ebola, was setting up the unit in Kissidougou, a town in the southern forest near where the outbreak began.
Police commissioner Alfred Houlemou told AFP by telephone from the scene that the youths "raided the facility, notably the MSF tents, and they torched tarpaulins and broke chairs to chase out the health personnel and officials."
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