Ebola shuts down signs of normal life in Sierra Leone

[Gert van der Hoek]

Ebola shuts down signs of normal life in Sierra Leone

By Mark Doyle
BBC International Development Correspondent

So, the number of people who have known to have died of Ebola in the current outbreak in west Africa has passed 5,000. But what does that mean for the affected communities?

Few signs of normal life

Even from this height it is usually possible to see signs of normal life.

Typical ones are smoke from cooking fires and colourful daily laundry draped over bushes to dry.

But in a large number of villages there were no signs of life.

Back down on the ground, near Port Loko, I crossed the main road that runs from the capital, north towards the neighbouring state of Guinea.

Normally this is a bustling highway, but Ebola checkpoints and roadblocks have limited trade in the region: there were very few vehicles on the road.

It is clear that Sierra Leoneans are not yet winning the war they have mounted against Ebola.

As the headmaster put it "no job no money" and parents in his area have found it impossible to feed their children properly.

"Our teachers are all healthy", he said, in that understated way of Liberians who have had more than their share of war and disasters over the years.

"Except they are in dying need of food."

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