High risk for German Ebola workers

An article circulating through the German media on Wednesday unveiled an oversight in the country's latest foreign mission, which could affect the safety of the personnel involved.

In an effort to combat the Ebola epidemic currently ravaging West Africa, Berlin had pledged last month to deploy both civilian and military personnel, where they will first set up a mobile hospital in coordination with the German Red Cross and the Federal Agency for Technical Relief.

More than 2,000 people have volunteered to travel to the region.

However, the widely-read news magazine Spiegel Online has reported that a key promise made to Ebola volunteers by the German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen could not be delivered, namely, that they would be transported back to Germany if they became infected.

The information published by Spiegel stemmed from a report submitted to the lower house of the German parliament - the Bundestag - by von der Leyen's state secretary, Markus Grübel.

Germany does not have "its own aircraft resources with which Ebola patients could be transported," Grübel wrote in his report.

While Germany does, in fact, have a MedEvac plane, it does not have the capability of quarantining an infected patient. According to Spiegel, reequipping the aircraft to meet this need could not be accomplished quickly.

The deadly virus has swept through Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea the hardest, infecting over 7,000 people since March. Of those people, an estimated 3,400 people have died.

Poor healthcare infrastructure in those countries has contributed greatly to its deadly impact.

Bundeswehr blunders

The Wednesday report follows a series of blunders that have cast a negative light on the Defense Ministry in recent weeks.

In late September, Defense Minister von der Leyen admitted that Germany could not currently fulfill its NATO commitments in the event of an attack on a member of the alliance, pointing to delays in replacement parts and missing helicopters.

Several German newspapers have published reports revealing massive gaps in the number of planes and helicopters which should be in service, but are, in fact, currently grounded.

Earlier this week, outside experts also completed a three-month-long study of the Bundeswehr, concluding that it lacked sufficient equipment and had wasted money on poorly managed projects.

Nine major projects worth 57 billion euros ($72 billion) were running between two-and-a-half and 10 years behind, often resulting in cost overruns amounting to billions of euros.

Since taking her post in late 2013, von der Leyen has used her role as defense minister to advocate a greater German military presence in international conflict zones. The problems plaguing the country's military have raised concern that her plans cannot be realized.

kms/jr (AFP, dpa)