posted by Bangirana Albert Billy
With now over six months since the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa, critics are beginning to question Africa’s commitment in responding to this looming catastrophe. The outbreak of Ebola has again revealed the ugly dents within the African Union block. Liesl Louw-Vaudran in the article “Africa: The AU’s Ebola Mission – It’s Not All About the Money,” published in allAfrica, critiques the AU for the ‘too little, too late’ approach to the epidemic. Little resources allocation and continuous rhetoric has marred the AU’s counter-Ebola strategy. The article “African Union wants entire continent to fight Ebola”, published in CCTV America, reports on the AU call on member states to join the fight against Ebola in view of preventing possibilities for a widespread epidemic. In the article “Africa Union meets to discuss continent-wide Ebola strategy” published in Business Day Live, Dr Nkosazana Zuma – current AU Chairperson – reiterates the need for a collective responsibility in ensuring that Ebola doesn’t spread to the rest of the continent. Bruce Wiah, in his article for The New Dawn, “Liberia: AU stresses coordination in Ebola Fight” emphasizes the need to coordinate resources towards areas most affected by the epidemic – an approach that is yet to be fully realised by the AU member countries. It’s therefore evident that more still needs to be done as the African Union committee “Africa Union Support to Ebola outbreak in West Africa” – ASEOWA recommits to a united, comprehensive and collective response to the epidemic. The question remains whether this will involve commitment of robust financial and professional resources to this critical cause.