'A Perfect Storm' A case study of how the Ebola response played into conflict dynamics in Sierra Leone

• Main Author: Barklin, Cathrine
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Malmö universitet, Fakulteten för kultur och samhälle (KS) 2020
• Subjects: Civil War; Ebola Outbreak; Humanitarian Response; Protracted Social Conflict; Sierra Leone; Social Sciences; Samhällsvetenskap
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-22827

Between 2014 and 2016, West Africa was struck by the largest ever Ebola epidemic. In Sierra Leone, the outbreak occurred only about a decade after the end of an eleven-year long civil war, which left the country with little capacity to contain the virus. While many have investigated the crisis that the Ebola outbreak caused West African countries, few have turned their attention directly towards the response to it. Following that line of thought, this case study explores how the Ebola response carried out by local, national and international actors played into conflict dynamics in the aftermath of the Sierra Le-onean civil war. By applying the theoretical perspectives of ‘the fortified aid compound’ and ‘dependent agency’, I argue that the response embodied a militarised approach and that it was insensitive towards local customs, which showed in shifting acts of compliance and resistance by beneficiaries. Lastly, by applying the theory of ‘protracted social con-flict’, I argue that conflict dynamics from the civil war were amplified by the Ebola re-sponse to some extent. The study concludes that future responses to epidemics, particu-larly in conflict affected settings, should consider potential negative effects connected to response structures and measures to a greater extent.