Doctors Without Borders workers in the Liberian capital city of Monrovia put a man on a stretcher after he arrived at a treatment facility in the back seat of a taxi. The man was too weak to walk and showed obvious symptoms of Ebola. (Michel du Cille/The Washington Post)
Thousands of U.S. military personnel will be dispatched to West Africa to help in the rapidly escalating global response to the Ebola epidemic — a massive health crisis that the World Health Organization's assistant director general said Tuesday was "unparalleled in modern times."
The U.S. plans, which trickled out overnight, were formally announced by President Obama at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta on Tuesday afternoon.
Here are some of the details — including what awaits the troops in Liberia.
The U.S. deployment
• The operation could cost as much as $750 million over the next six months.
• It might involve as many as 3,000 members of the military.
• The effort is called Operation United Assistance and will include the establishment of a U.S. military command center in Liberia to support civilian efforts. The command will be headed by Army Maj. Gen. Darryl A. Williams, who arrived in Liberia on Tuesday. Williams was already commanding U.S. Army forces in Africa.
• The military command will be in Monrovia, the capital of Liberia and home to West Point, a slum by the sea, which was the site of clashes between police and residents after an Ebola quarantine last month .
• In announcing the operation at the Centers for Disease Control and PreventionObama spoke of a "hard truth," saying: "In West Africa, Ebola is now an epidemic, of the likes that we have not seen before. It's spiraling out of control. It is getting worse."
• "We have to act fast; we can't dawdle on this one," Obama said. "We have to move with force and make sure we are catching this as best we can."
• "This is a daunting task," the president said. But it's critical, he said, calling the Ebola epidemic "a potential threat to global security if these countries break down, if their economies break down, if people panic."
