Passengers stranded in Gambia as flights banned on ebola fears

Hundreds of passengers were stranded in Gambia on Monday after the West African nation banned flights from countries linked to a deadly ebola virus outbreak. Scores of passengers were told about the ban on flights from Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia after arriving at Banjul International Airport, leaving some desperate. "It is really terrible for us as we have an important mission to run in Sierra Leone, but we were later told that there is no flight," one passenger said, while noting the ban was a "good move." "The authorities are right since it is not safe," he said. Gambia Bird Airlines chief executive Thomas Wazinski, whose airline is a major provider of flights to West African countries, confirmed he had been notified of the ban by the country's Ministry of Communication Infrastructure and Information because "an outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus has reached Conakry, after spreading from southern Guinea." "We are sorry to announce that our plans to launch new services from Dakar in Senegal, and Bissau in Guinea Bissau, to Conakry have been postponed, following the spread of the Ebola virus to the city," Wazinski said. Bird Airlines said it would refund passengers who had already booked flights to Conakry, the capital of Guinea. Last week, two Gambians from Conakry were intercepted at the Gambia-Senegal border on suspicion of carrying the virus but were later cleared and released. An emergency team from the Gambian Ministry of Health and Social Welfare has been on high alert, checking people entering the country along its borders.