Displaced by disease: 5 displacement patterns emerging from the Ebola epidemic

INTERNAL DISPLACEMENT MONITORING CENTRE                                                                            Nov.19, 2014

When a whole town was displaced in the south of Guinea during the Ebola crisis, the link between disease and displacement began to emerge. With IDMC monitoring the crisis across the three countries most affected since the outbreak took place, we have identified five key displacement trends emerging.

On 14 November 2014 the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER) reported that the Guinean government had announced the withdrawal of troops from Womey, Nzérékoré prefecture, in the south of the country when a group of people raising awareness about the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) were killed by angry residents.

Since the army’s deployment in September, there have been accusations of human rights violations at the hands of military personnel, resulting in the displacement of the whole town, with some 6,000 residents fleeing to forests in the surrounding area. This is the single largest reported incident of displacement during the Ebola crisis.

This is the first time IDMC has monitored displacement relating to disease, or biological hazard. Other countries with identified patterns of Ebola-related displacement include Mali, Sierra Leone and Liberia. IDMC’s analysis of the displacement reported across the affected countries identifies five internal displacement trends emerging from the epidemic.

http://reliefweb.int/report/liberia/displaced-disease-5-displacement-patterns-emerging-ebola-epidemic