UK steps up aid to help Sierra Leone fight Ebola

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A Sierra Leone Red Cross burial team disinfect Jobo Farm in Waterloo after recovering the bodies of a woman and her granddaughter. Photograph: EPA

Justine Greening, the international development secretary, is joining British troops heading to Sierra Leone to help with the fight against Ebola.

The cabinet minister is due to fly out on Tuesday from RAF Brize Norton with about 100 soldiers from the Catterick-based 35 Squadron, 5 Armoured Medical Regiment and Royal Army Medical Corps. They will run an Ebola training academy alongside 90 personnel from 22 Field Hospital who left for Sierra Leone last week.

Greening will visit the academy, as well as the site of a 92-bed treatment facility in Kerry Town which is in the final stages of construction.

She said: “Halting the disease in west Africa is the most effective way of preventing Ebola infecting people here in the UK. That is why we are providing 700 treatment beds in Sierra Leone, sending vital supplies such as chlorine and protective clothing and training hundreds of health workers.

“I look forward to seeing for myself how British army medics and engineers, as well as our humanitarian and health workers, are spearheading the UK’s efforts to contain and ultimately defeat Ebola.”

The UK has pledged a £125m aid package, including support for 700 treatment beds, and is deploying a total of 750 military personnel, including the navy’s RFA Argus.