The exorcism of #Ebola: Traditional Voodoo healer attempts to remove 'curse' in Guinea

A medicine man performs an exorcism as he attempts to remove a 'curse' on the village where the deadly Ebola outbreak is believed to have started.

The traditional healer was attempting to remove the hex that locals believe has plagued their village of Meliandou in Guinea.

It has been identified as 'ground zero' of the killer disease after.....
two-year-old Emile Ouamouno died there in late December 2013.
When little boy developed a fever, started vomiting, passed blood in his stool and then died two days later, nobody knew why.

As other villagers began dying, panic spread and traditional healer Kalifa Lengo was brought in to perform an exorcism ceremony.

Etienne Ouamouno, father of Emine, said: 'He took away the witchcraft items that the people had lying around their homes.'
But despite the removal of the items, people kept dying, causing hundreds to abandon the village, believing the Ouamouno family or the entire village, was cursed.

As the death toll continued to soar, the traditional healer was brought in to perform an exorcism ceremony.

This week, he returned to the tiny village to oversee the final stages of the rites that he first began last April.

During his first visit, Lengo planted a banana tree in the center of the village and promised to return. The cutting of the plant, the elders say, will bring about the removal of the curse.

Singing, dancing and rites were performed near the tree during the colourful ceremony earlier this week. A goat was cooked over a fire and a village elder threw rice at the tree.

Here, as in many other villages across the continent, people still believe that Ebola was spread on purpose by people seeking some type of gain.

Ebola, which is spread by the bodily fluids of a person showing symptoms of the disease, for which there is no known cure and which is usually fatal.

Meliandou villagers remain deeply suspicious about who or what brought the disease that has devastated their lives.

Scientists are still trying to find out how the outbreak started, including coming to Meliandou to test great apes and bats as possible sources.

The Ebola outbreak has devastated West Africa and is believed to have killed more than 9,200 people across Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.

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