Looming danger hangs over the 53 acres Waterloo Ebola Cemetry at Bolima Village which served as the final resting place for over ten thousand, four hundred Ebola victims and hundreds of mudslide victims of the August 14th 2017 Matormeh disaster.
Dozens of youths mainly from the village of Bolima and other surrounding villages now providing volunteering services at the cemetery told this medium that they were workers of Concerned Worldwide and also grave diggers and masoners who were rendering services during the 14 months outbreak at the cemetery.They added that since then they had stayed in the cemetery voluntarily to continue to help with cleaning the cemetery.
They further told Nightwatch that despite several appeals to the Western Area Rural District Council to put them on salary, help them with tools, safety gears and other detergents they have not been able to have the required support.
This has left the huge acreage of land which has been recently declared a national cemetery in ruins.
Hundreds of graves have opened-up due to the heavy down pour of rains.The site which is supposed to be a fenced environment is now a thoroughfare mainly used to access other villages and also for hunting purposes by villagers.Fire has recently engulfed the huge cemetery site which has remained bushy since the last Ebola commemoration when the Western Area Rural District Council funded a brushing activity at the site.Trees recently planted by the Council to build-up the vegetation of the area has suffered from such fire disaster.
The entire land totaling 53 acres according to the headman Abubakar Kargbo of Bolima village was graciously given by the King Family to the Western Area Rural District Council through their lawyers for use as the Ebola Cemetery and later the mudslide.
He continued that, the Western Area Rural District Council was supposed to have surveyed thoroughly, demarcate and fence the area which was suppose to be a tourist attraction by now.
The Headman expressed his disappointment that the area has remained a danger to his community largely because a lot of human activities are now taking place at the cemetery largely because it is unmanned and unfenced.
He expressed his disappointment that both the Western Area Rural District Council and the Government had failed to meet their promises to construct the 17 Km road to the cemetery which is now a national cemetery, provide the community with electricity and more especially fence and manned the historic cemetery housing over ten thousand Ebola victims and hundreds of mudslide victims.
The abandoned 53 acres Waterloo Ebola cemetery
A visit to the area by the Nightwatch team had showed collapsed graves at both the mudslide and ebola war sites. Youths who are providing volunteer services at the area and villagers using the area as a thoroughfare to other villages and also to hunt animals are very much unsafe.
Efforts to get the necessary authorities to respond to this latest looming danger at the ruined cemetery has proved futile as we go to press.