BY Taiwo George
Gambia, Zambia and Cote d’Ivoire have banned Nigerian flights from coming into their countries, in order to prevent the outbreak of the highly contagious Ebola virus in their countries.
While Zambia stated that the only condition to gain access into its country is for incoming Nigerians to be first quarantined for 30 days, the other two countries did not give such conditions.
Ebola, which has killed over 1, 000 people, has led to a strain in relationship between different countries.
Popular Nollywood actor, Kunle Afolayan, was recently isolated at Seychelles and Liberian citizens in Nigeria have also been complaining of discrimination from Nigerians, as the first case of Ebola in Nigeria was introduced by Liberian-American Patrick Sawyer.
Speaking at a function in Abuja on Monday, President Goodluck Jonathan annoyingly referred to Sawyerr as a ‘crazy man‘.
Ebola claimed its first casualty outside West Africa on Tuesday, as a priest who contracted the virus in Liberia, died at a hospital in Spain, where he was receiving treatment.
The Zambian government issued a circular on Tuesday, asking airlines flying Nigeria-Zambia route to inform Nigerian passengers coming into their country that they would be quarantined.
“There is therefore need to advise all passengers travelling from West Africa into Zambia, that they will be quarantined for 30 days before being allowed entry into Zambia,” read the circular.
“They (the airlines) have therefore been asked with immediate effect to avail the health inspectorate at the airports (KKIA, SMKIA and HMKIA), an indication of how many passengers on our flights are coming from the West African states.”
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