Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

The catastrophic scale of the COVID-19 pandemic could have been prevented, an independent global panel concluded on May 12, but a "toxic cocktail" of dithering and poor coordination meant the warning signs went unheeded.

The inauguration of The Gambia's President-elect Adama Barrow will go ahead on Jan. 19, his spokesman insisted on Jan. 15, as President Yahya Jammeh declared once again he would not step down by then.

Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf announced the lifting of the 21:00-06:00 curfew and the opening of all borders, as the Ebola pandemic has settled down. The Liberian Minister of Health will take all necessary measures to prevent any further spread of the pandemic.

The UN's new pointman on Ebola was due to arrive in west Africa on Thursday for a visit aimed at shoring up health services in the region where at least 1,350 lives have been lost to the virus.
      

Seventeen patients infected with Ebola were unaccounted for on Sunday after they fled an armed raid on a quarantine centre in Monrovia by men who claimed the epidemic is a fiction.