Jefferson Karr was ready to return to Liberia. He had wound down the
management school he ran in Ghana, given away the computers and planned
his trip home.
Now Karr is in limbo, along with many of his compatriots in the
Buduburam refugee camp, 35 kilometres (22 miles) west of Ghana's
capital, Accra.
Ebola has killed more than 5,000 people, mostly in Guinea, Liberia
and Sierra Leone, and is expected to hit economic growth in the region,
as border closures and stigma disrupt the flow of goods and people.
On the sprawling camp's winding dirt roads, Liberians no longer talk
of the civil war that raged from 1989 to 1997 and forced many of them to
seek refuge in Ghana.
Instead, they talk of a virus that kills like no other, with nearly
3,000 Liberians among the dead and the west African country having only
just lifted a state of emergency imposed three months ago.
"If it had been like the war, we had the opportunity to flee to the
Ivory Coast," said Karr, who lost two uncles in the civil conflict and
has been living in Ghana for the past 16 years.
"But with Ebola, where will you go?"
Transport links idle
The world's largest outbreak of Ebola began in Guinea earlier this
year before spreading across its porous borders into Liberia and Sierra
Leone.
The paltry health systems of all three have been overwhelmed,
prompting the United States, France and Britain to deploy their
militaries and the creation of a UN mission to fight the disease.
Border closures and flight cancellations have blighted economies
still struggling with post-civil war rebuilding and facing urgent
development needs.
By and large, Liberians are not refugees anymore. Most lost that
status in 2012 and many chose to return home, said Tetteh Padi, the
programme coordinator for the Ghana Refugee Board.
Only a fraction of those living in the camp were able to prove
extenuating circumstances that allowed them to keep their refugee
status, he added.
In all, the Ghana Refugee Board is providing support to more than
5,000 Liberians in the camp but there are more who have fallen through
the net.
From Buduburam's entrance, trucks would set off for a five-day
journey to Liberia's capital Monrovia, said Robert Mcintosh, secretary
of the Ghana Private Roads Transport Union.
Passenger vans also carried people via Ivory Coast, which separates the two countries.
Now the vehicles sit loaded with merchandise but motionless at Buduburam's entrance—a testament to the camp's paralysed economy.
"They carry goods and (are) hoping that they will get there and sell and be able to pay back the money," Mcintosh said.
"But (it is) a very difficult time for them now, since the borders have been closed between Ivory Coast and Liberia."
Bad news from home
In the camp itself, posters warn against the risk of Ebola, despite
Ghana being free from the disease but on its guard against any imported
cases.
The exiles talk of families once again torn apart and of familiar faces taken by the disease.
One of the former conductors at Buduburam's forlorn long-distance bus
terminal died of Ebola in Liberia, said James Nuamaha, the
stationmaster.
After missing the organised repatriations to Liberia, Peter Kaba
lives jobless in the camp. Then, he got the news that Ebola had killed
his older sister and five other family members.
"I don't have money to go because I have no money to sustain myself here," Kaba said.
Karr, too, received bad news from home. The little brother of a best
friend from Liberia caught the haemorrhagic fever, which spread to his
wife and their four children.
The best friend and his wife died, while the children were critically ill.
"I'm highly frustrated with this Ebola issue," Karr said.
"By now I should have been making impact in Liberia, transforming
lives, and then trying to wipe away that illiteracy that is in our
country that's posing us a problem."
But with the border shut, all he can do is wait.
Story; Medical express
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