Liberia addresses UN General Assembly
Foreign Minister Augustine Kpehe Ngafuan, who is leading a Liberian Government delegation to New York, was expected to address the 69th Session of the United Nations General Assembly on Monday, on behalf of President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf.
According to a Foreign Ministry press release, Minister Ngafuan would continue the Liberian Government’s plea for increased and speedy response to the ongoing Ebola health crisis in the country, while outlining the government’s efforts so far aimed at curbing the spread of the virus.
Last week, President Johnson-Sirleaf told world leaders attending a High Level Meeting on Response to the Ebola Virus via video-link from Monrovia that Liberia is faced with the great challenge of preventing a projection of a worst case scenario that puts the number of persons who may die here from the Ebola virus disease in the hundreds of thousands.
She asked the international community to ramp up its response in line with the scale and speed of the virus.
Prior to the Liberian Leader’s speech, US President Barack Obama had urged for more global support towards the Ebola fight in West Africa, noting that there was still a huge gap between the current global response and what is needed to stop the spread of the virus that continues to claim the lives of thousands of people, particularly in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.
