Liberia's armed forces are allowed to shoot people trying to illegally cross the border, which has beenclosed to contain the spread of Ebola, the Liberia Observer reported Tuesday.
Soldiers in Bomi and Grand Cape Mount counties, which border Sierra Leone, were instructed to "shoot on sight" any person trying to cross the border, Deputy Chief of Staff Colonel Eric Dennis said. The order comes after border officials reported people continued to cross the border into the country illegally.
Grand Cape Mount County had 35 known "illegal entry points," according to immigration commander Colonel Samuel Mulbah, news.com.au reported. Illegal crossing are a big health concern because officials don't know the infection status of those who cross.
Liberia closed its borders with Sierra Leone weeks ago to try to contain the Ebola outbreak, which has killed more than 1,100 people in West Africa. At the same time, Liberian officials continue to search for 17 Ebola patients who fled an attack on a quarantine center in Monrovia, causing panic that they could spread the disease.
Youths with clubs and knives raided the medical facility set up in a high school in the densely populated West Point slum, shouting that there is no such thing as Ebola, giving life to rumors that the epidemic has been created by the West to oppress Africans.
Information Minister Lewis Brown said authorities have not found the missing patients and looters took away mattresses and bedding that were soaked with contagious fluids from the patients.
Authorities are considering closing off the area, which is home to around 75,000 people, but some suggest the infected patients have already left West Point.
"All those hooligans who looted the center are all now probable carriers of the disease," Brown said.
