ECOWAS to deploy 192 medical personnel on Ebola.

Members of the Economic Community
of West African States have pledged to
deploy, over the next six months, 192
military medical personnel to
strengthen the fight against the Ebola
epidemic in the region’s most affected
countries.
Rising from a meeting of the
Committee of Chiefs of Defence Staff
in Accra on Monday, Benin, Burkina
Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea
Bissau, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo
pledged to contribute eight military
personnel each, including two medical
doctors and six other health officers to
be rotated every two months.
The pledge translated to 24 medical
personnel per country and 192 in total.
For effective and timely deployment,
the Committee urged ECOWAS to put in
place necessary financial and
logistics support, according to a
statement from the Commission on
Tuesday.
During the meeting, the regional
defence chiefs were updated on the
ECOWAS response initiatives against
Ebola. They also listened to
presentations by the West African
Health Organization which highlighted
the security and socio-economic
impacts of the epidemic on the region,
and discussed the ECOWAS Plan for
the deployment of military medical
personnel to the most affected
countries.
In the discussions that followed the
presentations, the defence chiefs
underscored the need for ECOWAS and
Member States to own the process of
the fight against the Ebola outbreak in
the region.
The meeting also discussed the need
for solidarity with affected countries
and for the military to join the global
fight against Ebola through deployment
of military medical personnel as well
as respect and compliance with
existing coordinating structures and
mechanisms in the affected Member-
States.
Closing the meeting, the CCDS
Chairman and Ghana’s Chief of
Defence Staff, Vice Admiral Matthew
Quashie, expressed appreciation to
Member-States and encouraged them
to redeem their pledges.