Freetown--Sierra Leone's 1.8 million children prepared Tuesday to return to school, eight months after classes were shut to halt the spread of the deadly Ebola virus.
Classrooms have been empty since the government announced a state of emergency in July last year in response to an outbreak which has killed around 10,500 people, almost all of them in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.
More than 3,800 of the deaths were in Sierra Leone alone, according to World Health Organisation's (WHO) figures.
"This marks a major step in the normalisation of life in Sierra Leone," Roeland Monasch, Sierra Leone representative for UNICEF, the United Nations children's fund, said in a statement.
"It is important that all children get into school including those who were out of school before the Ebola outbreak. Education for all is a key part of the recovery process for the country."
The reopening had been set for March 30 as the rate of new infections slowed but the date was pushed back to April 14 with a spurt in new cases, mostly around the capital Freetown and three other western districts.
Only nine confirmed cases were reported in the seven days to April 5, the WHO said in its latest situation update, compared with 25 the previous week -- a fifth consecutive weekly decrease and the lowest weekly total in almost a year.
UNICEF said it was working with the government to ensure children were safe by training 9,000 teachers on Ebola prevention, including hand-washing and regular temperature checks.
AFP
