MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) — Liberians gathered this week to mark a decade since the country was hit by a devastating Ebola outbreak that killed more than 10,000 people in West Africa, adding to the region’s economic and political troubles.
The second Wednesday of March in Liberia, National Decoration Day, is always one of remembrance and people gathered this year at a memorial site where many victims of the virus were buried outside the capital, Monrovia, to pay their respects to family and friends. It was a grim milestone for those who lost loved ones to the virus, even though cultural stigma leads many to insist they died of other causes.