Liberians celebrate their dead, 10 years after Ebola

Liberian citizens on Wednesday observed the tenth anniversary of the Ebola epidemic that ravaged the country.

On the second Wednesday of March each year, the country observes National Decoration Day - a time where Liberians gather at various cemeteries to commemorate their departed relatives.

This year's observance brought relatives to Disco Hill Safe Burial Site in Margibi County to mourn the victims of Ebola.

Mr. E. Jefferson Dahnlo, the health care coordinator at the National Public Health Institute of Liberia, said about 4,500 bodies of victims, and the ashes of those who were cremated, were placed at the site.

A total of 4,810 persons died in Liberia when the virus hit, according to the Centres for Disease Control (DCD).

Yassa Johnson, who now plays the role of a mother to her little brother and sister, visited the site to honour her mother who died during the epidemic.

She explained that her mother died while she had the virus, but denied that her mother died of Ebola, instead saying the cause was high blood pressure.

Liberia became the third country to report that the Ebola virus disease (EVD) had spread into the country from neighbouring Guinea. There was a sharp increase in cases in Monrovia, Liberia’s capital city.

Before December 2014, Liberia was one of the countries that was affected the most by the virus.