4 Injured in Violent Clashes as Liberians Storm Ebola Barricades

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At least four people were injured in clashes with Liberian soldiers and police after the government laid barbed wire barricades around a densely populated slum in an attempt to contain the spread of Ebola.

Young men surged towards the barricades and hurled stones at troops, who responded by firing live rounds of ammunition, the New York Times reports. Agence France-Presse reports that at least four people were injured in the skirmish.

The unrest highlights a deepening sense of mistrust among residents of West Point, a district that government officials designated as a quarantine zone on Wednesday morning. Tensions flared in the area earlier in the week as the opening of an Ebola treatment clinic in a local school fueled fears that health officials were bringing in infected patients from other parts of the city. The clinic was ransacked on Saturday, enabling several quarantined patients to escape.

The death toll from suspected and confirmed cases of Ebola across west Africa climbed to 1,350 people, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday.

[NYT]

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