President of Senegal: Ebola 'Threat Against Humanity'

President of Senegal: Ebola 'Threat Against Humanity'

on Tue, 5 Aug 2014

The Ebola outbreak is a “threat against humanity,” Macky Sall, the President of the Republic of Senegal said through an interpreter at the U.S.-Africa Summit Tuesday. 

“Let me say how big is my solidarity to the victims,” Sall said at a summit panel moderated by PBS’ Charlie Rose. “I am a neighbor of Guinea. I’m almost a neighbor of Sierra Leone. We are in the crucible. In the eye of the cyclone.” 

“I will tell the international community that Ebola is a devastating virus. It is not an African disease,” he continued. “You have to see this virus as a threat against humanity. It is a threat against humanity because with intercontinental flights, all you need is a flight to the U.S. or Europe so that you have a world crisis.”

Sall urged the international community to mobilize its scientists and researchers to work against the disease “in order to win” he said.

“It is the solidarity of the international community that we are requesting,” he said.   

Jacob Zuma, President of the Republic of South Africa, echoed Sall, saying Ebola is a “disease that is affecting humanity rather than just look at it as an African problem.”

Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, the president of the United Republic of Tanzania stressed that Ebola outbreak is centered in West Africa, Tanzania is on the other side of the continent.

“Of course right now the epidemic is in West Africa. Tanzania is in East Africa,” Kikwete said to laughs and cheers from the audience. 

When Rose pointed out that planes can move the disease long distances, Kikwete acknowledged that the country is “concerned” and have put precautions in place to prevent an outbreak in Tanzania.