Dozens of mourners gathered to clear graves at Liberia’s largest Ebola burial site on Wednesday, as the country approached 10 years since the virus first swept through the population.
The West African nation was badly hit by the region’s Ebola pandemic, which raged from 2014 to 2016 and killed 4,810 people in Liberia alone.
The country’s first cases were confirmed on March 30, 2014, according to the World Health Organization.
“It is very hard for us. We see that there are a lot of children here… and we know some of the kids lost parents,” said Pastor Charles Brown, who set up an orphanage for children whose parents died during the Ebola crisis.
Wednesday marked Liberia’s annual “Decoration Day”, when relatives of the deceased traditionally visit cemeteries to pay their respects.
The Disco Hill cemetery just south of the capital Monrovia was originally designed to hold Ebola victims, but now also houses the remains of those who died during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The graveyard holds some 4,500 bodies, according to E. Jefferson Dahnlo, health care waste manager at the National Public Health Institute of Liberia.
As mourners made their way through the site, small groups stopped to clear plots of land and commemorate their loved ones.
“I have come to honour my mother,” said Yassa Johnson, as she stood beside a hut containing her mother’s ashes.
Johnson said her mother’s body had been cremated at the height of the Ebola pandemic, but denied that she had died of the virus.
A sense of collective denial is widespread in Liberia, and many relatives of victims still refuse to blame Ebola for the death of their loved ones.
Johnson said she wanted the Liberian government to introduce a support programme for those left behind.
President Joseph Boakai marked Decoration Day by visiting the graves of former heads of state in Monrovia.
