A shipping container holding medical supplies, ones needed to fight the Ebola epidemic, has been sitting, detained, for two months due to disorganization and "politics, money and power," according to The New York Times.
While healthcare workers provide assistance in their street clothes or in gowns with holes, "There are 100 bags and boxes of hospital linens, 100 cases of protective suits, 80 cases of face masks and other items - in all, more than $140,000 worth of medical equipment locked inside a dented container at the port since Aug. 9."
Chernoh Alpha Bah, an opposition politician from the Sierra Leone president's hometown of Makeni, organized the donation of supplies. Speculation of delays include political tensions.
"Mr. Bah said he thought the equipment would be welcomed by the struggling authorities, and he said he expected the shipping fee of $6,500 would be a small detail for Sierra Leone. According to the official, the government has already received well over $40 million in cash from international donors to fight Ebola," The Times reported.
Bah reportedly said that the shipping company, in the face of disaster, had agreed to send the container without payment first. Bah also mentioned that other containers were being held in the U.S. because of Sierra Leone's "refusal to pay."
"They are blaming us for shipping in without authorization," Bah said. "It appears all they are interested in is cash donations. And all we have are supplies."
