#News: Ebola Sucks Life From Already-Weakened West African States

[HuffingtonPost]

By Clair MacDougall and Emma Farge                

MONROVIA/DAKAR, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Poverty, then war, and  now, a deadly plague.                

Among the world's poorest states at the bottom of global  development indexes, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea had shown  signs of leaving behind brutal wars and leaping into Africa's  economic boom - before a lethal Ebola epidemic struck.                

As the world's biggest outbreak ravages the populations of  these small states from West Africa's Mano River Region, their  resource-dependent economies are reeling from the impact.                

With the death toll more than 900, Ebola is hitting tourism,  reducing travel and trade, and slowing farming and mining,  delivering body blows to what had been buoyant GDP growth driven  by increasing foreign investment, officials said.                

"A common feature of these three countries is they're all  fragile states," Makhtar Diop, the World Bank's vice president  for Africa, said on a call with reporters.                

"It means that they're countries that need more support from  the international community in normal times ... And this  external shock that they're currently facing, this crisis, is  taking them even further back," Diop said.                

Liberia's Finance Minister Amara Konneh said the outbreak  had already cost his country's economy $12 million between April  and June - two percent of the budget - and the disease was still  spreading. Liberia would have to revise down its projected GDP  growth of 5.9 percent, he said.                

"We are scrambling for a response for this crisis ... If it  is not contained it will have serious consequences for our  economy," Konneh told Reuters.                

In the ramshackle ocean-front capital Monrovia, still  scarred by a 1989-2003 civil war, relatives of Ebola victims  were dragging bodies into the dirt streets rather than face  quarantine enforced by troops.                

Sierra Leone's foreign minister, Samura Kamara, said his  country could ill afford the costs of fighting the epidemic.                

"You have to divert resources. You have to divert energy. So  you are slowing down the other aspects of real economic  development just to fight a disease that erupted out of  nowhere," he told Reuters on a visit to Washington.                

An initial World Bank-IMF impact assessment for Guinea,  where the outbreak started in a remote forest region and has  killed over 350 people, projects the bauxite exporter's GDP  growth falling from 4.5 percent to 3.5 percent.                

The World Bank and African Development Bank have committed  $260 million to help the three worst-affected countries.                

With two Ebola deaths also reported so far in Nigeria, fears  are growing about how the deadly virus, which can kill up to 90  percent of those it infects, could impact Africa's top oil  producer and most populous nation, and the surrounding region.                                

FLEEING FARMERS, FALLING REVENUES                

The World Bank said agriculture had been hit in Guinea,  Sierra Leone and Liberia as rural workers fled farming areas in  the affected zones, where some Ebola patients have been shunning  medical treatment and hiding away in their villages.                

Liberia's Konneh said a slowdown in farming and transport  and reduced activity at popular markets could push up prices of  essential food items and other goods.                

"We're watching inflation. So far it's not been bad but  we're worried about the Lofa food belt where people are  quarantined and major markets closed. We expect hoarding by  people in urban areas that could drive food prices up," he said.                

In Monrovia, residents said the Ebola emergency, and the  fear and suspicion it has generated, was disrupting daily life,  affecting everything from street hawking to taxi fares.                

"Prices have gone up high. They're charging us as though we  were dressed in suits with neckties. Transportation fare is up  now," said Seyon Tweh, a small trader.                

Due to the fear of contagion from close contact - Ebola is  spread by contact with the bodily fluids of infected humans or  animals - taxis were now only taking two passengers in the back  instead of the previous four, and this had pushed fares up.                

Konneh said the government would prevent price-gouging.                

Some major airlines, such as British Airways and  Emirates have halted flights to affected countries,  and expatriates there are fleeing the Ebola risk, government  officials said, adding this reduced consumption and revenues.                

"We've seen international workers leaving the country in  numbers," Liberia's Konneh said.                

"We're seeing a fall-off in financial receipts due to lower  activity at the airport and hotels," Emmanuel Soussouadouno, a  senior official at Guinea's finance ministry, told Reuters.                

During overlapping civil wars that lasted more than a  decade, Sierra Leone and Liberia were symbols of Africa's  "Hopeless Continent" image, with their diamond riches driving a  conflict made notorious by amputations and rapes.                

Guinea suffered spillovers of refugees and fighters.                

But in the decade since peace was restored, the Mano River  states have experienced surging growth propelled by foreign  investment in mining, oil exploration and construction.                

That recovery is now threatened. "This economic challenge  comes at a time when all three countries have been enjoying  peace and stability after years of interconnected wars and civil  strife," Liberia's Konneh said.                                

INVESTORS: NO RUSH FOR EXIT                

Most major foreign companies operating in Guinea, Sierra  Leone and Liberia are responding cautiously, reducing staff  movements and adopting precautionary health measures.                

"Some companies are moving back workers and others have  postponed projects to see how the outbreak develops," said    Katie Greary, medical director at International SOS, a travel  security risk services company.                

The World Bank said that if the evacuation of skilled  expatriate staff continued, there would be a "sizable decline in  production" from mining operations in the affected region.                

The two big iron ore miners in Liberia, Arcelor Mittal   and China Union, are still operating, Konneh said.                

"We are trying to ensure we put in place health protocols in  mining areas," he added.                

In the Guinean mining town of Siguiri, where an Ebola  isolation ward was opened in July to cope with new cases,  AngloGold Ashanti said it was taking health measures   but there had been no impact on its operations there.                

In the wider region, mining companies are on alert. Perseus  Mining, which has mines in Ghana and Ivory Coast, said  it has issued health warnings and barred from its sites anyone  coming from Guinea, Sierra Leone or Liberia in the last month.                

Canadian Overseas Petroleum, a partner with oil  major ExxonMobil in offshore exploration in Liberia,  said it was pushing back the start of drilling.                

ExxonMobil declined to comment on personnel but said safety  was a top priority. "Our Monrovia office remains open," it said.                

Liberian and Sierra Leonean officials appealed to major  investors not to abandon their countries because of Ebola.                

"My message is: 'Don't leave the country. Stay with us -  let's fight this together'," said Konneh.     (Additional reporting by Anna Yukhananov, Lesley Wroughton,  Phil Stewart and Alphonso Toweh in Washington, Saliou Samb in  Conakry, Ed Stoddard and Pascal Fletcher in Johannesburg.;  Writing by Pascal Fletcher, editing by Peter Millership and Paul  Taylor)
Source: huffingtonPost