President says there will no troops rotation for AMISOM to avoid risk of Ebola virus

Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has announced that there will be no any troops rotation for African Union forces in Somalia [AMISOM] to avoid the risk of the Ebola virus which has killed hundreds of people in Sierra Leone.

Sierra Leone is one of the AMISOM contributing countries and has deployed nearly one battalion into Somalia’s Southern region of Jubba.

“AMISOM will hold on troops rotation to Somalia until we make sure that people arriving in Somalia are not affected,” President Mohamud told reporters in Washington on Monday.

He said, the Federal Government of Somalia discussed the fears that the risk of Ebola virus into Somalia so that proper procedures to contain the new virus will be in place.

Last week, the spokesman of the AMISOM mission in Somalia Colonel Ali Aden Houmud said they put on hold the rotation of the Sierra Leone battalion in Kismayo in order to avoid that the fresh troops could be affected and risk to spread the virus into Somalia.

Somalis in Mogadishu are talking the issues seriously as they believe that engaging with AMISOM personnel can endanger their health as there are various troops from West African nations are currently operating in Somalia including Sierra Leone and Nigeria.

Ebola, which is a hemorrhagic virus has so far killed more than 900 people in several countries in the West Africa.  The virus has no known treatment, according to the World Health Organization.