Ebola worsens food crisis #liberia

Liberia, a soil-rich West African state with poor agricultural
programs, is gradually slipping into a food crisis as nearby
countries including Sierra Leone, Guinea and Ivory Coast
from where it imports local agriculture commodities have
all shut their borders over the ongoing Ebola crisis.
As of Monday, August 25, Ebola death toll had reached up to
1,500 victims across the affected countries, and Liberia is
leading the fatalities.
During a weekend visist in Tubmanburg, Bomi County,
President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf re-enforced call for all
Liberians to go back to the soil and make farms, as she
sees the compelling sub-regional disconnect imposed by
the deadly Ebola virus "as an example" for everbody to
make farms.
"And let me tell y'all one thing, Ivory Coast has closed its
border, just as we have closed ours too; Guinea has closed
its border and Sierra Leone has closed its border. That
means all those market women that used to go over there to
bring food, that food not coming again. Everybody got to be
able to... Liberia got to feed itself. This one here must serve
as an example that it's time for everybody to go back to the
farm," she said.
Speaking with Bomi County authorities as anxious citizens
stood by a long Tubmanburg's main street on Saturday,
President Sirleaf said citizens do not have to wait for "post-
Ebola crisis," and urged that those are Ebola- freed should
begin farming, feed their families and communities now and
prepare for tomorrow.
Other than that, President Sirleaf fears that "the people will
not give us their food," suggesting that the main thing after
the Ebola crisis and even now is to go back to farming, and
said "something got to be done to deal with trauma" after
the Ebola crisis here.
Meanwhile, the Bomi County Superintendent Samuel Brown
said Ebola has spread into five communities in Tubmanburg
alone, and it has gone beyond the city to Clay and parts of
the county.
Mr. Brown reported on Saturday that a victim had died in
Clay and the body had been there for two days due to
challenges faced by health team in Bomi, especially
stressing that nearly all ambulances there are down.
Notwithstanding, he told President Sirleaf that on Friday,
August 22, they received almost 1,000 bags of rice, 70 bags
of beans and 60 cartons of oil for the Bomi quarantine
center.