Maldives has joined international efforts against Ebola outbreak by co-sponsoring a historic resolution adopted today at the United Nations Security Council.
The Security Council, in its first emergency meeting on a public health crisis unanimously adopted the resolution, co-sponsored by 131 countries, by far the most number of co-sponsors of any of the 2,176 resolutions adopted since UN was created. The resolution determinines that the unprecedented extent of the Ebola outbreak in Africa as constituting a threat to international peace and security.
By the resolution the Security Council has expressed concern about the detrimental effect of the isolation of Ebola-hit Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone as a result of trade and travel restrictions imposed on the affected countries and called on Member States to facilitate the delivery of assistance, including qualified, specialized and trained personnel and supplies to the affected countries.
Ebola “[…] is not just a health crisis; it has grave humanitarian, economic and social consequences that could spread far beyond the affected countries, […]”, said His Excellency Secretary-General of the United Nations Organisation (UNO) Ban Ki-moon in a press conference held at the UN Headquarters. Dr. Margaret Chan, Director-General of the UN World Health Organization (WHO) emphasized that the current reports that show that more than 5,500 people have been infected by Ebola and more than 2,500 killed by it in West Africa are “vast underestimates”. Dr. Chan said she had been touched by the outpouring of solidarity, which “gives us hope that the global community understands the severity of the outbreak and the fact that no one country or organization can address it alone.”.
