News Digest

Liberia is having ‘the worst Christmas ever’ because of Ebola

The Ebola epidemic has cast a dark shadow over Christmas this year in Liberia, where small businesses are especially feeling the pinch. “This is the worst Christmas we have ever seen,” said Isaac G. Chea, a trader. Because of the Ebola crisis, he said, people don’t want to come in the market for fear of contracting the disease. The Ebola crisis, which has seen more than 3,000 Liberians lose their lives, prompted President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to cancel a traditional event in which she invites children to her office to give them Christmas presents.

You celebrate only when you are healthy. Ebola is still here, we have to keep the biggest portion of the money for preventive measures and preventive medicine.

Resident Sunny Fassiah, 53

Some youths and children could be seen engaging in another Christmas tradition – putting on disguises and dancing in the streets to raise pocket money to buy presents with – but the usual verve was lacking. More prominent were anti-Ebola teams plying the streets of the capital and suburbs urging people to be particularly vigilant against the disease during the holidays. Samuel Streete, an engineer, told AFP: “I told my family, I told my kids that they are not going out. No celebration, we will stay home and watch movies all day because of Ebola.”