EBOLA OUTBREAK: Sudan Denies Nigerians Entry Over Ebola Fears

Reports coming in from Sudan reveal that no fewer than 26 Nigerians have been denied entry into the country over Ebola scare. Premium Times reports that the Nigerian nationals were stopped over suspicion that they were possibly infected by the dreaded Ebola Virus Disease (EVD).One of the repatriated persons, who gave his name as Hauwa’u Ibrahim Bakori, a second year student of Pharmacy at Al Ahfad University for Women, Omdurman, confirmed that she and 25 others were denied entry after arriving Khartoum Airport on December 10, 2014, Wednesday.

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She said they were detained, and then deported to Nigeria on Thursday, despite the fact that she was in her second year at the Sudanese university and had travelled to Nigeria on holidays.

It was gathered that the Nigerians travelled to Khartoum through an Ethiopian Airline flight ET 910 from Abuja on Wednesday, through Addis Ababa, but on arrival in Khartoum, the Sudanese authorities seized their passports, and arranged boarding passes for them to return to Nigeria immediately.

Ms. Bakori said they were sent back to Nigeria via the same Ethiopian Airline on Thursday even while they were not tested for Ebola.

It is however amazing that the Sudanese government took the decision even after the World Health Organisation (WHO) had declared Nigeria free of Ebola since October 20, 2014.

However, the Sudanese government and the Nigerian foreign ministry could not be reached for comments on the issue.

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Meanwhile, the global health body, which declared Nigeria free of the dreaded disease, explained that the country completed an extended 42 day observation period and described Nigeria’s ability to contain the deadly virus a “spectacular success”.

“The lines on the tabular situation reports, sent to WHO each day by its country office in Nigeria, have now been full of zeros for 42 days. This is a spectacular success story that shows that Ebola can be contained. The story of how Nigeria ended what many believed to be potentially the most explosive Ebola outbreak imaginable is worth telling in detail,” the WHO said in a statement dated October 20.

It would be recalled that Ebola was imported to Nigeria by the late Liberian-American, Patrick Sawyer, on July 20.

It would be added that Nigerian health workers have recently departed the country to offer services to contain the EVD in the neighbouring West African countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

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