About
850 Nigerian soldiers currently in Liberia on a peace keeping mission are set
to be quarantined upon return to Nigeria to ensure that the Ebola Virus Disease
is not reintroduced into the country
About
850 Nigerian
peacekeeping troops serving in Ebola-ravaged Liberia will be
quarantined for 28 days when they return to the country, Punch reports.
The
soldiers were originally due to return to Nigeria in January 2015 but their
homecoming has reportedly been postponed till March 2015.
Liberia
has been battling a severe Ebola outbreak since March and as a precaution, the
soldiers will be quarantined in Gwagwalada, Abuja before being
allowed to resume their normal duties.
A source reportedly said:
“You know that our soldiers in Liberia are to return to
the country from two mission areas, Liberia and Sudan.
“The men of the Nigerian Army Battalion 43, in Sudan,
will arrive in the country in December, and may be allowed to go their units on
arrival in the country.
“But the arrival of their counterparts from Liberia, who
were initially supposed to arrive in the country in January, will be delayed.
The UN has not approved their movement so they will leave Liberia for Nigeria
in March.”
“Another thing is that even when they arrive in the
country, they will be kept at a military barracks being built at Gwagwalada for
28 days before they are released to go to their units.
“I think the authorities are just being careful; there is
no intent to demoralise anybody because we all know the dangers of this Ebola
Virus Disease.”
This
comes after the Head of the Nigerian
Army Medical Corps, Major-General
Obashina Ogunbiyi, announced that over 1000 Nigerian soldiers had been quarantined
in Liberia after coming in contact with an Ebola-infected Sudanese man.
Ebola
was brought into Nigeria by Liberian, Patrick
Sawyer but the disease has been successfully contained and the World Health Organization is set to issue an official
clearance to the country on October 20.
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