CONAKRY (Reuters) – President Francois Hollande pledged on Friday that France would set an example by providing aid to Ebola stricken countries in West Africa, in the first visit by a Western leader to the affected region since the outbreak began.
Hollande was greeted on his arrival in Guinea by President Alpha Conde, ahead of a visit to an Ebola hospital and a roundtable discussion on the response to the disease. Hollande will travel to neighboring Senegal later on Friday for a summit of French-speaking nations.
Guinea’s former colonial master France has agreed to set up a military hospital in West Africa to help fight the outbreak and is sending 100 million euros (124.84 million US dollars) in financial assistance for the Ebola effort.
Other Western nations are also ramping up their support. The United States is deploying up to 3,000 troops, mostly in neighboring Liberia, while Britain has sent military staff to build treatments centers in Sierra Leone.
“France wants to set an example. Beyond material help, it is human help which is the most important,” Hollande, dressed in a somber suit, told journalists at Conakry airport, saying he had come to “deliver a message of hope.”
The worst-known Ebola outbreak in history has killed more than 5,600 people in West Africa since it first emerged from deep in the forests of Guinea last December. More than 1,200 have died in Guinea alone.
Conde’s government has made some progress in bringing the outbreak under control, although aid workers say that local resistance to help is hampering efforts to curb the spread in rural areas.
(Reporting by Saliou Samb; Writing by Emma Farge; Editing by Daniel Flynn)