Mormon Missionaries Returning To Former Ebola Hot Zone
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH – JUNE 10, 2015 (Gephardt Daily) –
LIBERIA, AFRICA – June 11, 2015 (Gephardt Daily) – Ten months after pulling its missionaries from the Ebola stricken hot zones of West Africa, the Church Jesus Christ Of Latter-day Saints says a new group missionaries will be returning to Liberia.
LDS Church spokesman Eric Hawkins made the announcement Wednesday, saying the missionaries’ return will be a slow and deliberate process.
“Missionaries are once again being called to serve in the African nation of Liberia,” Hawkins said. “Non-native missionaries (those from outside Liberia) will serve in surrounding areas until it is determined that it is safe for them to enter Liberia.”
The LDS Church first pulled roughly 250 missionaries from Liberia, as well as neighboring Sierra Leone, in August, 2014, just the Ebola epidemic began spreading throughout the region. At the time, the outbreak the church provided humanitarian aid and vowed missionaries would one day return.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, nearly 11,000 cases of Ebola were diagnosed in Liberia during last year’s outbreak. 4,806 of those cases resulted in fatalities.
In Sierra Leone, another 13,000 cases were confirmed in the last year with more than 3,900 deaths being reported.
According to the World Health Organization the Ebola outbreak in Liberia officially ended May 19, 2015, although 15 new cases have been reported in Sierra Leone since June 1st.
In Wednesday’s statement, the LDS Church praised those who continued local missionary efforts in the afflicted area even as the epidemic continued to spread.
“We are touched by the faithfulness of the members in this region as they have continued missionary work in the absence of full-time missionaries,” Hawkins said. “We know they will welcome the return of elders and sisters to their country.”
