Tag Archives: Guinea

Migrants risk death crossing Alpine mountains to reach France

Abdullhai, 38, from Guinea, is helped by a friend as they try to cross part of the Alps mountain range from Italy into France, near the town of Bardonecchia, in northern Italy, December 21, 2017.

By Siegfried Modola

BARDONECCHIA, Italy (Reuters) – It took Abdullhai almost three years to get from his home in Guinea to a rocky, snow-covered Alpine mountain pass in the dead of winter, for what he hopes will be the final stage of his journey into France.

The terrain is steep and dangerous and he and a group of five other migrants face risks ranging from losing their footing on steep drops, being struck by falling rocks or succumbing to the -9C (15°F) temperatures in clothing ill-suited to the terrain.

Abdullhai, 38, is one of hundreds of migrants who over the last year have attempted to cross from Italy into France through high mountain passes, in a bid to evade increased border security put in place at easier crossing points. His group crossed into France in December.

In Guinea, he left behind his wife and three children, including a two-year old son whom he has never seen.

“Our life in Guinea is not good,” said Abdullhai, 38, who like his friends asked that his last name not be published in this story.

“There is no work there and no future for my children. Here in Europe we can have a future. We can find work and live a life with some dignity. This is worth a try for me.”

A migrant rests after crossing part of the Alps mountain range from Italy into France, near the town of Nevache in southeastern France, December 21, 2017.

A migrant rests after crossing part of the Alps mountain range from Italy into France, near the town of Nevache in southeastern France, December 21, 2017. REUTERS/Siegfried Modola

The number of migrants making perilous journeys has fallen since over one million arrived in Europe from the Middle East and Africa in 2015. There were 171,635 arrivals by boat officially recorded in 2017, down from 363,504 in 2016.

As the group huddled around a fire in a cave during a rest on their journey, others told stories of being jailed and tortured, or of being orphaned and looking at uncertain futures in their home country.

The crossings have become more perilous with heavy snowfall.

On Jan. 10, Reuters spoke with three migrants, a 24-year-old Senegalese man, a 31-year-old man from the Democratic Republic of Congo and a 37-year-old from Pakistan who were attempting to cross into France.

They managed to cross the border, but abandoned their trek, exhausted and despondent, and were returned to Italy.

But they are at least alive. The International Organisation for Migration estimates that 20,000 people have died in the Mediterranean itself while trying to reach Italy.

Nor does it compare to the hardships that some of those making the journey have already endured to get as far as they have.

Discarded clothes are seen by a mountain pass near the Italian-French border from where migrants have attempted to pass into France, near the Mediterranean coastal town of Ventimiglia in northern Italy,

Discarded clothes are seen by a mountain pass near the Italian-French border from where migrants have attempted to pass into France, near the Mediterranean coastal town of Ventimiglia in northern Italy, December 2, 2017. REUTERS/Siegfried Modola

“I was imprisoned and tortured in Libya for many months. I was forced to work for free. Just look at my scars,” said Kamarra, 28, from Guinea, lifting his shirt and pulling down his trousers at the side to show marks on his body and hip.

“After all that, crossing the Alps is not a big deal for me.”

For a photo essay about the migrant crossings, click here:http://reut.rs/2EyeDmR

(Additional reporting by Eleanor Biles; Writing by Mark Hanrahan in London; Editing by Richard Balmforth)

Fifth person dies in Guinea Ebola flare-up

CONAKRY (Reuters) – A fifth person has died of Ebola in southeast Guinea since March 17, a health official told Reuters on Tuesday, raising concerns that a recent flare-up of the deadly virus could spread.

The latest case was detected in Macenta prefecture, about 200 kilometers from the village of Korokpara where the four other recent Ebola-related deaths occurred, said Fode Sylla Tass, spokesman for National Coordination of the Fight against Ebola in Guinea.

The man, who has not been identified, had recently visited Korokpara and had been in direct contact with the first patients, Tass said. He was buried in the village of Makoidou without any sanitary precautions.

Burials, where bodies of the deceased are often washed, have been a main cause of transmission of Ebola, which has killed at least 11,300 people in West Africa since 2013 in the worst outbreak on record.

Guinea, one of the worst hit countries, was declared Ebola free in December, but the World Health Organization warned about possible flare-ups.

It was not immediately clear how the people from Korokpara had contracted the disease but the area had previously resisted efforts to fight the illness in the initial epidemic.

Guinea’s Ebola coordination unit has traced an estimated 816 people who may have come into contact with the first four recent victims.

Liberia closed its border with Guinea on Tuesday as a precaution against the latest outbreak.

In Makoidou, news of the latest test was met with panic.

“When the villagers realized that the test conducted by our health teams on the man were positive, they all fled into the bush,” Tass said.

(Reporting by Saliou Samb; Writing by Edward McAllister; Editing by Catherine Evans)

Guinea, Origin of West Africa Ebola Outbreak, Now Free of Virus

Health officials say that Guinea is officially free of Ebola, a milestone achievement for the nation that was the original source of a deadly outbreak of the disease about two years ago.

The World Health Organization (WHO), an arm of the United Nations, made the announcement on Tuesday, saying it had been 42 days since test results on the West African nation’s final confirmed Ebola patient came back negative. The WHO said the outbreak that ravaged Guinea and the neighboring nations of Sierra Leone and Liberia, killing thousands of people and sickening scores more, originally began in Gueckedou, Guinea, late in 2013 before spreading.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the rare-but-often-fatal disease killed 2,536 people in Guinea, the vast majority of people who fell ill with it. The virus also killed 3,955 in Sierra Leone and more than 4,800 in Liberia. In isolated instances, Ebola arrived in seven other nations and killed 15 more people, including one in the United States.

Though the outbreak received widespread coverage from around the globe, 11,300 of the 11,315 Ebola deaths occurred in the three West African nations most severely impacted by the virus. Likewise, CDC data show 28,601 of the 28,637 suspected ebola cases occurred in those nations.

The WHO deemed Sierra Leone free of the disease in November, according to a statement at the time. The WHO had also declared Liberia free of the disease in September, according to the CDC, though three additional cases of the Ebola virus have surfaced in the past few weeks.

The WHO says that Ebola can linger in the bodies of some male survivors for up to one year, making monitoring important. The organization said officials would be on high alert for the next 90 days to ensure any potential new infections are rapidly discovered to prevent transmission.

Head of CDC Heads to Sierra Leone

Concerns about the new Ebola scare in Sierra Leone has the head of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) flying to that nation.

The report of the trip comes on the heels of Sierra Leone officials admitting they have two more new cases of the virus connected to the first victim who died last week.

“We now know where the virus is and we are tracking its movement, by surrounding, containing and eradicating its last remaining chain of transmission,” ational Ebola Response Centre’s OB Sisay said.

CDC Head Dr. Tom Frieden reportedly will help assess the situation and provide advice on steps needed to control the new outbreak.

Officials say the problem with controlling the virus early is that the initial symptom of fever is similar to that of other diseases such as malaria and typhoid.  That would lead some folks who have Ebola to not seek treatment or isolate themselves because they don’t know they have the deadly virus.

The Ebola outbreak has killed more than 11,200 people worldwide although the overwhelming number of deaths were in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.

Ebola Outbreak Is A New Strain

Virologists made a scary new discovery in the investigation of the Ebola outbreak in Guinea.

It’s a new strain of the virus.

Researchers say that the discovery means that the outbreak has no connection to any previous outbreak in Africa.  Ebola has a pattern of outbreak in the western parts of the country and the surprise outbreak in east Africa caught many health officials by surprise.

The scientists say that the new virus has been confirmed to have the same unknown ancestor of the western viruses.  They say the virus likely was introduced into the region in December 2013.

The virus was also found in fruit bats within the region and it’s possible that the virus had mutated within the bats.

The virologists say that the new strain could be a potential catastrophe among the region as the area has never experienced a major Ebola outbreak until now.

Ebola Outbreak In Africa Spreads To New Country

The outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in Africa is growing into more of a concern for world leaders.

Mali reported their first possible cases of Ebola since the beginning of an outbreak in neighboring Guinea.  Government officials have isolated three people in Mali as they await confirmation testing from the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta.

Guinea reported their 90th death from the outbreak leading Doctors Without Borders to say this could become an unprecedented epidemic in a region that has extremely poor health care systems.

The outbreak has reached a point that foreign mining companies in Guinea have closed their operations and pulled their employees to their home nations.  French officials say they are preparing screening at the airports for travels from the former French colonies.

In addition to Guinea, confirmed cases have been found in Sierra Leone and Liberia.  Liberia confirmed three new deaths in the last 24 hours bringing their total to four.

DWB officials are concerned with the dense living conditions in cities where the virus has been found because it will be hard to stop the virus should it break out in a crowded living area.

Deadly Ebola Outbreak Threatens Guinea Capital City

Attempts to control a deadly virus in Guinea appear to be failing as the outbreak continues to spread.

Three cases of hemorrhagic fever cases in Guinea’s capital of Conakry were negative for Ebola, however, doctors have not been able to determine the cause of the infections that have killed two of the three hospitalized victims.

Guinea has been facing a massive outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus, which kills up to 90 percent of those infected.  World Health Organization officials have isolated three rural villages in an attempt to keep the virus from spreading.

At least 60 deaths have been confirmed from Ebola.  The total does not include deaths in rural villages where the villagers did not report the illness of a family member or buried them before they could be tested for the virus.

Health officials fear the quarantine of the areas will fail because locals are afraid of the virus and fleeing rural towns for the nation’s capital city.

There is no treatment or vaccine available for Ebola.  The most recent epidemic occurred in 2012 in the Democratic Republic of Congo and killed 62 people.