BRUSSELS (AP) – Liberia’s president on Tuesday called for an international aid plan to help rebuild economies in West Africa once Ebola is under control.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said Tuesday that “we need our international partners to remain committed to us,” as the number of deaths from the disease approaches 10,000.
Sirleaf told fellow regional leaders and delegates at a major international conference on Ebola in Brussels that rebuilding economies devastated by the outbreak is a long-term and costly task.
She said that “the most important long-term response to Ebola rests on plans and strategies for economic recovery,” adding that “this will require significant resources, perhaps even a Marshall Plan.”
The outbreak is focused in an area of West Africa about the size of France, with a population of about 20 million people, and where infrastructure is limited. Even if the number of new Ebola cases in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone has dropped significantly, bringing it down to zero will still take a significant effort.