The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has restated its continued commitment to supporting Ebola stricken West African countries to tackle the outbreak.
A statement from the Fund quoted IMF’s Managing Director, Christine Lagarde, as making the pledge in Washington DC on Friday during a meeting with the Guinean President, Alpha Condé.
The statement quoted Lagarde as saying that the IMF would continue to stand with Guinea and other Ebola infected countries in the sub-region.
“ On behalf of the Fund, my main message today to President Condé and to the people of Guinea is that we stand with you in these times of trial.
“We have already provided 41 million dollars to Guinea on an emergency basis, we are ready to do more if needed,’’ the statement quoted her as saying.
It further quoted Largade as describing the Ebola virus as “a disease that poses a humanitarian and economic challenge to Guinea and its neighbours.
“Beyond the loss of life and social dislocation, it is threatening to reverse the advances made by these countries in recent years in economic development and poverty reduction,’’ she was quoted as saying.
Ebola fever, a contagious disease whose cure has yet to be discovered appeared for the first time in a northern town of former Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1976.
The World Health Organisation says the disease which resurfaced in Guinea in March 2014 had spread to Liberia and Sierra Leone, resulting in no fewer than 3,000 deaths since then.
