President apologises to Liberia’s health workers

Liberia’s President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has apologised for the high death toll among the country’s health workers, who have fought an ebola outbreak which has killed nearly 1,000 people in three countries.

Johnson Sirleaf pledged up to $18m (€13.4m) for the ebola fight, part of which will be given to health workers to help with insurance and death benefits, to fund more ambulances and to increase the number of treatment centres.

“If we haven’t done enough so far, I have come to apologise to you,” she told hundreds of health workers who gathered at Monrovia’s City Hall for a meeting with her government.