Guinea's president on global aid push: 'Ebola forced us to change completely'

After the international community pledged $3.4bn for West Africa, Alpha Condé is cautiously optimistic and taking stock of lessons learned

Guinean president Alpha Conde speaks to UN members during an International Ebola Recovery Conference on 10 July. Photograph: EDUARDO MUNOZ ALVAREZ/AFP/Getty Images

THE GUARDIAN by Raya Jababi                        June 11, 2015
NEW YORK--More than a year after the charity Médecins Sans Frontières sounded the alarm on the Ebolaepidemic that would claim more than 11,000 lives, the international community on Friday pledged $3.4bn to help affected West African countries recover.

Rather than use the donations for emergency funds, however, the presidents of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, attending a two-day United Nations conference in New York, said they hoped the funds would be used to help their ailing economies.

The trio had petitioned for $3.2bn – enough, they said, to boost brutalized infrastructure and healthcare systems and revitalize flailing private sectors.

The president of Guinea, Alpha Condé, was cautiously optimistic.

“You know, a lot was promised to us, but we received little,” Condé told the Guardian in an interview during the conference. “It’s of no use to pledge large numbers if [Guinea] ends up receiving nothing.

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