Anger rises in Liberia about Ebola response

MONROVA, Liberia — Riot police raced to quell a demonstration blocking Liberia’s busiest highway Saturday as a crowd protested delays in the collection of bodies of Ebola victims.

In Guinea, where the deadly Ebola outbreak emerged in March, health officials said Saturday that the country was closing its land borders with Liberia and Sierra Leone, two of the countries where the killer virus has now spread and where deaths are mounting.

The World Health Organization declared the outbreak an international health emergency Friday.

The growing unease in Liberia, where nearly 300 people have died of the disease, raises the specter of so- cial unrest.

Several bodies had lain beside a road for two days in the central town of Weala, 50 miles from Monrovia, the capital, residents said.

The Ebola virus spreads through the bodily f luids of its victims, and many in West Africa have fallen ill after touching corpses.

Liberia’s government has ordered that the bodies of all Ebola victims be cremated.

Information Minister Lewis Brown sounded a warning Saturday on state radio.

“Security people are on their way to put things under control,” Brown said, directing his comments to protesters. “We don’t want people taking the law into their own hands.”

The latest Ebola outbreak is the largest ever recorded for the disease and has killed at least 961 people, according to figures released Friday by the United Nations health agency. The situation is particularly dire in Liberia, where the Doctors Without Borders aid group has described conditions as “catastrophic.”

“There are reports of dead bodies lying in streets and houses,” said Lindis Hurum, the group’s emergency coordinator in Liberia.

At least 40 health workers in the country have contracted Ebola and most of the city’s hospitals are closed, Hurum said.

State radio broadcaster Smith Toby called health workers “front-line soldiers” leading the fight against Ebola.

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf met with health workers Saturday at City Hall in Monrovia.