Sierra Leone’s Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (MAFS) has taken proactive measures to restrict livestock movement, particularly in the vicinity of Kelima Bendu Town, Foyah District. This decision comes in response to verified reports received from the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) in Liberia, where their field officer in Lofa County discovered deceased cattle in a field located in Kelima Bendu Town.

The MAFS has initiated with immediate effect the following measures:

1. TEMPORARY band of movement of cattle, goats, and sheep along the Liberia

Sierra Leone boarder.

2. Prohibit the entrance of meat and meat products from Liberia into Sierra Leone.

3. Restrict the movement of cattle, goats, and sheep from Kailahun, Kenema and

Pujehun to other districts in Sierra Leone.

4. Temporary ban the movement of meat and meat products from Kailahun,

Kenema and Pujehun to other districts in Sierra Leone.

5. Temporary closure of all livestock markets in Kailahun, Kenema and Pujehun

6. Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security and partners step-up surveillance in slaughterhouses, for sick animals and humans with signs and symptoms of

anthrax in Kailahun, Kenema and Pujehun.

The ministry further called on the public to recall that 36 cows were found dead on Thursday, July 6, 2023, in the cow fields along the Foya-Mendekorma Highway at Kelima Bendu Town four miles from the border with Kailahun district. A team of coordinated inter-governmental animal health specialists under the ONE HEALTH PLATFORM in neighboring Liberia are investigating the cause(s) of death so they urge everyone to follow with due process and abide to the newly established measures.