Article
Ebola Help for
Sierra Leone Is Nearby, but Delayed on the Docks
FREETOWN, Sierra Leone
— It has been sitting idly on the docks for nearly two months: a shipping
container packed with protective gowns, gloves, stretchers, mattresses and
other medical supplies needed to help fight Sierra Leone’s exploding Ebola
epidemic.
There are 100 bags and
boxes of hospital linens, 100 cases of protective suits, 80 cases of face masks
and other items — in all, more than $140,000 worth of medical equipment locked
inside a dented container at the port since Aug. 9.
Hundreds of people have
died of Ebola in Sierra Leone since then, and health workers have endured grave
shortages of lifesaving supplies, putting them at even greater risk in a country
reeling from the virus.
“We are still just
hoping (!!!) — which sounds like BEGGING — that this container should be
cleared,” one government official wrote in a frantic email to his superiors,
weeks after the container arrived.
In many ways, the delay
reflects what some in the growing ranks of international officials pouring into
this nation to fight Ebola describe as a chaotic, disorganized government
response to the epidemic.
“It’s a mess,” said one
foreign official working alongside the Sierra Leone government agency set up to
deal with the crisis. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to
maintain vital relations with the government, said that nobody appeared to be
in charge at the agency, known as the “emergency operations center,” and that
different factions made decisions independently.
“It’s the only body
responsible,” the official said. “What is it doing?”
In the case of the
shipping container, the desperately needed supplies seem to have been caught,
at least in part, in a trap that is common the world over: politics, money and
power.
The supplies were
donated by individuals and institutions in the United States, according to
Chernoh Alpha Bah, who organized the shipment. But Mr. Bah wears another hat,
as well. He is an opposition politician from President Ernest Bai Koroma’s
hometown, Makeni — a place that clearly showed the government’s inability to
contain Ebola.
A recent surge of cases
there quickly overwhelmed health workers, with protective gear so lacking that
some nurses have worked around the deadly virus in their street clothes.
More than 80 health
care workers in Sierra Leone have died in the outbreak, and even in the
capital, Freetown, some burial crews wear protective gowns with gaping holes in
them, a clear indication of the urgent need for more supplies.
The government official
who pleaded for the shipment to come in said that the political tensions may
have contributed to the delay, to prevent the opposition from trumpeting the
donations.
Mr. Bah said he thought
the equipment would be welcomed by the struggling authorities, and he said he
expected the shipping fee of $6,500 would be a small detail for Sierra Leone.
According to the official, the government has already received well over $40
million in cash from international donors to fight Ebola.
The shipping company,
as a good-will gesture in a moment of crisis, had agreed to send the goods
without being paid first, Mr. Bah said. But no more. Three other containers of
similar value await shipment from the United States, he said, halted by the government’s
long refusal to pay.
“We will appreciate if
the payment is made quickly so that the medical supplies will be sent directly
to the affected or targeted areas,” Mr. Bah wrote to the government on Aug. 16.
Instead, top government
officials argued over the fee, said that the proper procedures had not been
followed, and finally brushed aside the official urging that the supplies be
let in, saying they wanted to hear nothing more about it.
“They are blaming us for shipping in
without authorization,” Mr. Bah said. “It appears all
they are interested in is cash donations. And all we have are supplies.”
At one point, a senior
official close to the president, Sylvia Olayinka Blyden, acknowledged in an
email that the items listed in Mr. Bah’s container were “very impressive.” But
she said “future shipments” should follow procedure. That was on Sept. 1, and she
has since left her post. The goods are still inside the container on the dock
here.
“He should have
contacted the ministry and discussed it with the ministry,” Yayah A. Conteh, an
official at the health ministry, said of Mr. Bah, adding that the medical
supplies would be cleared “very soon.”
In times of crisis,
when needs are great and officials are overburdened, trickles of uncoordinated
donations can be a distraction, some aid workers say, requiring a lot of
attention without solving the biggest problems.
But some Sierra
Leoneans say that the government’s resistance has discouraged other potential
donors in the diaspora.
Ibrahim Kamara, a
Sierra Leonean in Canada who has put together what he says is a $55,000
container of medical supplies, said that he was now encountering the same
problems with the government — an unwillingness to pay the $5,000 shipping fee.
“There is no positive response, no
feedback, no anything,” Mr. Kamara said. “It’s been over
a month now.”
The emergency
operations center was established to manage the urgent but confusing patchwork
of agencies and international aid groups trying to battle the virus. The health
ministry itself has been rocked by corruption and mismanagement scandals in
recent years, further weakening efforts in a country that, even before the
Ebola epidemic, suffered from some of the world’s worst health statistics after
a brutal 10-year civil war.
Twenty-nine of the
country’s top health officials were indicted last year in connection with the
misappropriation of a half-million dollars in vaccination funds. The leaders
were all acquitted. A free health care program set up by foreign donors has
been damaged by corruption problems, with nurses illegally selling drugs and
doctors charging for services. In 2010, a former health minister was convicted
on corruption charges. This year, the health minister was pushed aside during
the Ebola crisis amid questions over her competence.
At a recent meeting at
the emergency operations center, local politicians discussed at length how they
might be able to use the government’s recent three-day national lockdown — in
which volunteers went door-to-door to educate people about Ebola — for their
own political benefit.
Meanwhile, reported
cases of Ebola are doubling every 30 to 40 days, according to the United States
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 620 deaths have been
recorded, with the real number almost certainly much higher.
The government official
who pleaded for the supplies to be let in argued that the epidemic, “like the
war we experienced between 1991 and 2002,” had exposed the extent of government
corruption.
The more urgent the
pleas, the official said, the more it “elicited only disdain from some people
in authority.”
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