US begins sending 3,000 troops to Liberia

The US is sending 3,000 troops to Liberia, west Africa, in the next month.

It claims it is to deal with the Ebola crisis, and so far insists that it is just a matter of logistics and engineering.

US president Barack Obama explained that this was a job for the military because, “Our armed services are better at that, than any organization on earth.”

More than 2,000 people have died the current Ebola outbreak, with more than half of them in Liberia.

In neighbouring Sierra Leone, the government imposed a total lockdown on the country’s six million people on Friday of last week. No one was allowed to leave their home until the curfew was lifted after three days.

The US military is trying to build its influence in Africa through its Africom military command.

It wants troops in place as it is worried about the regional instability that the outbreak is causing in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.

Most people in Africa are wary of an increased US military presence.

Africom has been based in Germany since its creation in 2007, as no African government will give it permission to establish a headquarters on its soil.  

The only one to express an interest was Liberia, but at the time the US considered it to be too unstable.