By Sheik Bakarr Kamara, FBC
Christian Blango son of the first African to be elected mayor of the Borough of Southwark Dr. Columba Blango is returning to Sierra Leone with the British Royal Navy to help combat the Ebola scourge in the country. Christian is an honours graduate in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Greenwich University. Born in England, Christian,23, joined the Royal Navy immediately on graduation. He will be part of a 750 British contingent drawn from the Royal Scots Border 1st Battalion based in Hollywood, Northern Ireland that will be deployed in Sierra Leone ‘to tackle the outbreak by setting up Ebola Treatment Centres and an Ebola Training Academy’. It will be a sad homecoming though for the young soldier for just about a month ago, his grandfather J.E.M. Blango 83 was medically certified to have died of cardiac and bone related complications at Moyamba Juntion (Some fifty miles from Sierra Leone’s second capital-Bo) where he had retired.
Further tragedy was to strike the Blango homestead. During the period of the mourning ceremony For Christian’s octogenarian grandfather, an Ebola infected person visited the then crowded home. This fateful visit occasioned a massive outbreak of the virus that completely devastated the township leaving several of Christians family members dead. Such was the devastation of this outbreak in the crowded business hub that today; Moyamba Junction is a ghost town. It is among several towns and Chiefdoms that have been isolated by the government and several affected households quarantined in a bid to break the chain of transmission and stem the spread of the killer scourge.
Christian returns to his fatherland with a double mission-as a representative of the Queen, he will be part of the British effort to eliminate the virus. And as a member of the Blango family, to honour the memory of his late grandfather and bring some consolation to his surviving family members who have had to endure such a terrible tragedy by being a part of this demanding venture. ‘’It is heartening that the son of a family which paid the ultimate price is returning home as part of a British contingent to help save his people from falling prey like his deceased family members to the virus’’. a local medico close to the British troops said.
Commanding Officer of the troops Lt. Col.Matt Munro said the deployment ‘is a challenge like no other. We deployed in Sierra Leone at short notice not knowing how long my people were likely to be here’. On an optismic note however, Lt Col. Munro said his people were ‘at very low risk of contracting the virus’.
Of the expected 750 troops, 400 have already arrived. In addition to the troops, three helicopters will also be deployed together with Christian’s Royal Scots 1st Battalion expected in Sierra Leone by the end of October to ‘fly doctors and personnel to hard to reach areas’ in a country where vast swathes of its territory are hardly accessible.
Addressing the troops before their departure, Defence Secretary, Michael Fallon, said ‘’The Ebola outbreak in West Africa is already a global threat to public health and the UK remains at the forefront of responding to the epidemic’’. ‘’We are stepping up significantly the UKs contribution and leadership in work to tackle the outbreak on land air and sea’ ’He said.
As the people of Sierra Leone fondly remember Britain’s decisive intervention that helped end the 11 year hideously cruel rebel war in the year 2000,They will again be pinning their hope on young Christian Blango and his British comrades-in-arms to stop yet another scourge in its track.
© Politico 28/10/14
