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| Health workers preparing to tend to Ebola patients |
There was pandemonium
in Sierra Leone`s third largest city, Kenema, as thousands of residents Friday clashed
with police during anti government demonstrations over the authorities`
handling of the Ebola epidemic.
Police fired tear gas
to disperse the crowds who surrounded the main government hospital and a police
station chanting anti government slogans.
According to sources, a
9-year old boy was gunned down during the skirmishes, allegedly by police. But
the police has denied this.
The incident in Kenema happened
as police in Freetown mounted a manhunt for a woman who tested positive for the
Ebola virus.
32 year old Saudatu Koroma, a
hair dresser, is the first ever Freetown resident to have tested positive for
the virus, the ministry of Health and Sanitation said.
Previous cases and
deaths in the densely populated capital city attributed to the Ebola have been
traced to the epicenter of the outbreak in the east of the country.
Weapon-wielding family members
of the infected woman stormed the King Herman Road hospital in the west of the
capital on Thursday and forcibly removed her after realizing she was being tested
for the deadly hemorrhagic fever disease, officials said.
