SANDF's Ebola extraction plan

A RAPID extraction plan is in place to withdraw thousands of South African peacekeeping troops deployed to the Democratic Republic of Congo in the face of a potential Ebola threat.

The plan follows the World Health Organisation (WHO) classifying Kenya as a high-risk country for the spread of the deadly virus.

This is the most serious warning to date by the WHO that Ebola could spread to East Africa.

A third Ebola victim died in Nigeria's capital Lagos yesterday, while Liberia is struggling to save doctors as they wait for an experimental serum. The WHO has declared the Ebola outbreak, which has killed 1013 and infected 1848, a global public health emergency.

Yesterday, Germany called on its nationals to leave the three worst-hit countries, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the centre of the outbreak.

More than 1300 South African troops are deployed in the eastern DRC's highly volatile region. The withdrawal would, however, create a security vacuum and pose a major risk to the entire region, military analyst Helmoed Heitman warned.

Additional threats from Ebola were the SADC's limited military capabilities to help contain or slow the spread of the virus into southern Africa, he said.

SA National Defence Force spokesman Lieutenant-General Xolani Mabanga confirmed an extraction plan was in place should the troops come under threat from Ebola.

"Ebola has not reached the region, but we are not leaving anything to chance.

"We are taking precautionary measures to ensure the protection of our troops.

"The SANDF, together with the Health Department, is working closely with the UN and other world organisations leading efforts to stop the spread of Ebola."

He said awareness programmes were being run with troops on the symptoms of Ebola as well as how to manage and contain soldiers suspected of being infected.

"We are also constantly monitoring international warning systems to ensure our troops' safety," he said. "Should our troops come under threat of infection we will move them to save them ... we have the necessary extraction plans."

Heitman said if troops were withdrawn, it would collapse the intervention brigade that they were part of.

"Our soldiers make up a third of the brigade. If they pull out it would be a serious blow, because we would not be the only ones to withdraw under the threat of Ebola."

Any withdrawal would create a vacuum for rebels to fill.

He said should Ebola spread to the SADC, there would be challenges for the SADC's militaries trying to help slow it down.

"There are only a handful of SADC countries, like South Africa, which have the necessary chemical and biological capabilities.

"Countries with larger populations, limited military capabilities [chemical and biological] and poor medical facilities would have problems."

Heitman said militaries would have to be called on to close borders and limit both the transnational and national movement of people.

The National Institute for Communicable Diseases's deputy director, Lucille Blumberg, said many African countries, such as the DRC, had rapid response systems in place to quickly and successfully contain outbreaks.

"We have the ability to deal with such outbreaks successfully. In terms of the SADC, we have agreed to use our high- security laboratory, which has the capacity to conduct Ebola diagnostics, to do any testing on suspected cases which occur in the region."

She confirmed the centre's head would take a team to Sierra Leone with a mobile laboratory to provide on-site Ebola testing.

"The assistance will be used to confirm or exclude Ebola cases. The key intervention is to identify and stop the further spread."  - Graeme Hosken