Nigeria Weighs Flight Restrictions From DR Congo, Uganda Over Ebola Outbreak – Arise News

Nigerian authorities are considering possible flight restrictions from Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and South Sudan as part of measures to prevent the spread of the Ebola virus into the country.

The move was discussed on Thursday during a high-level strategic meeting held in Victoria Island, Lagos, where top government officials reviewed Nigeria’s Ebola preparedness and response framework amid growing concerns over outbreaks in parts of Africa.

Among those present at the meeting were Jide Idris, Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC); Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, Minister of Interior; Femi Gbajabiamila, Chief of Staff to President Bola Tinubu; and Akin Abayomi, Lagos State Commissioner for Health.

Speaking after the meeting, Gbajabiamila said President Tinubu had been fully briefed on the situation in the affected countries and assured Nigerians that the federal government would take all necessary steps to prevent any outbreak in Nigeria.

“We have a health scare, which is Ebola, and we all know what happened the last time. The cases are getting worse, internationally and worldwide, and we don’t want to leave anything to chance,” Gbajabiamila said.

He explained that several preventive measures were being considered by the government, including restricting flights from countries affected by the outbreak.

“There were three, four areas we looked at. We looked at the issue of possibility, as of now, of restricting flights from countries of interest. We looked at the possibilities of isolating passengers who may exhibit symptoms of Ebola,” he said.

“We looked at the possibility of isolating or using the cargo terminal to deal with passengers that are coming in from those areas, and of course, putting certain things in place, protocols in place; we believe that prevention is better than cure, and where some passengers slip through the cracks, then we must have ways of dealing with situations such as that.”

The Minister of Interior, Tunji-Ojo, said the government had already directed that all entry points into Nigeria be placed under strict surveillance.

According to him, the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) would collaborate closely with the NCDC to strengthen early detection and rapid response mechanisms.

The NCDC Director-General, Idris, also disclosed that preparedness plans had been activated across the 36 states of the federation, while public awareness campaigns would be intensified to educate citizens on preventive measures and response protocols.

The renewed alert comes years after the devastating 2013–2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, regarded as the deadliest in history, which claimed more than 4,500 lives across the region.

Nigeria’s handling of the outbreak was widely praised by the World Health Organisation (WHO), which described the country’s response as a “spectacular success story” after authorities successfully contained the virus through an incident management strategy supported by the private sector and international partners.

The late Dr. Ameyo Stella Adadevoh was widely credited for helping to stop the spread of the disease in Nigeria after identifying and isolating Patrick Sawyer, the American-Liberian traveller who became the country’s first recorded Ebola patient.

Several countries, including the United States, Canada, and the Bahamas, have since introduced Ebola-related travel restrictions in response to outbreaks in affected regions.

On Wednesday, Uganda announced the closure of its border with the DRC as part of efforts to contain the spread of the virus.

Boluwatife Enome 

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