Following continued plans to contain the spread of the deadly Ebola Virus Disease, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) will in November hold an emergency meeting to brainstorm on collaborative measures, between members states.
Ghanian President, John Dramani Mahama, disclosed this while briefing journalists alongside President Goodluck Jonathan, on the issues discussed during a closed door meeting at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Mahama said the meeting is scheduled to hold in the first week of November to update member states on the issues of Ebola and how to work together to contain the fast spreading situation.
At least 4,555 people are reported to have died from the out break of Ebola in some West African states.
Nigeria which was one of the countries affected will?on the 20th of October, may be declared Ebola free, after successfully combating the spread and announcing a no Ebola case reach.
However three?African?countries are still worse hit in the subregion: Sierra Leon, Liberia and Guinea are currently fighting the disease alongside, Spain, United States of America and the Netherlands.
Mahama told journalists that the?ECOWAS itself is doing its best to support the countries to be able to contain the outbreak.
“It is important for us to assist them to contain the out break so that we do not have a situation where it spreads through out the subregion” he said.
The Ghanian President commended Nigeria’s?President Jonathan for “the very diligent manner the government and people of Nigeria dealt with the outbreak that occurred here”.
He added that “Indeed, the Nigerian experience has become a model for the rest of the world and Nigeria is assisting other countries in terms of their Ebola preparedness and how to handle such outbreaks”.
He said at the closed door meeting with President Jonathan,?bilateral issues between Ghana and Nigeria, were also discussed.
” As you are aware, we are members of the west Africa Gas Pipeline and we discussed the issues of raising the volumes of gas supply so that we can boost power supplies not only in Ghana, but in Togo and Benin that are also beneficiaries of this pipe lines” he said.
The duo also discussed issues of security, especially in ration to the Boko Haram crisis. According to Mahama : “We also discussed the issues of security and we are optimistically hopeful that Nigeria will continue to be able to deal with the issue of Boko Haram. We believe that the people should stand in solidarity with the a government, you must be one in dealing with this threat to your national survival. And for us in west Africa, we believe that the destabilization if Nigeria is destabilization of the whole of the West African subregion. It is not only because of the size of Nigeria, but it is the largest ?economy in the whole of the subregion and indeed the whole of Africa. We will continue to express solidarity with Nigeria in your fight against this insurgency”.
