Woe betide any nation that offends Rwanda’s dignity. The tiny, tech-savvy east African country abhors what it views as the west’s control of aid for political gain, the double standards it sees operating at the International Criminal Court and any hint of patronising, anti-African or racist sentiment. This sensitivity stems from an anguished past: Rwanda regularly berates the west for abandoning it during the 1994 genocide that killed an estimated 800,000 people within a hundred days.
So who better to fight Africa’s corner when it comes to Ebola?
Rwanda has just instituted twice-daily health checks on arrivals from Spain and the US, both of which have registered Ebola cases.
“Visitors who have been in the United States or Spain during the last 22 days are now required to report their medical condition—regardless of whether they are experiencing symptoms of Ebola—by telephone by dialing 114 between 7:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. for the duration of their visit to Rwanda (if less than 21 days), or for the first 21 days of their visit to Rwanda,” says a statement from the US embassy in Rwanda.
The move underlines the point that although in Africa the disease is now limited to three of the continent’s poorest, most dishevelled, small countries in west Africa, the entire continent of 50-plus nations appears to be paying the price. The IMF says growth rates across the continent will be affected; Kenya’s flag carrier, Kenya Airways, says bottom lines are already dented; tourism from safaris to beach holidays far from the west African coast will be down by dint of unthinking association.Read the rest of the story HERE.
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