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TreyfishMonrovia (AFP) - The crematorium in the Liberian capital Monrovia is struggling to deal with the dozens of Ebola victims whose bodies are being brought each day, the Red Cross said Thursday.
Fayah Tamba, the secretary-general of the Liberian division of the charity, said workers were having to return corpses to a hospital in the city after being told there was not the capacity to cremate all the victims.
She told a local radio station that she believes it may now be necessary for international organisations to take over responsibility for handling the crisis from the national authorities.
Liberia has seen the biggest toll among the four west African countries hit by Ebola, with 576 deaths from 972 diagnosed cases to date.
Speaking just hours before a UN-appointed doctor was due to arrive in the region to help combat the spread of the disease, Tamba said that Liberia also needed help to deal with the dead.
"We are constrained... On Saturday our team was able to collect up to 41 bodies. On Sunday they collected up to 37 bodies. The crematorium did not have the capacity to cremate all these bodies, so we had to... carry them (back) to ELWA," the hospital in the capital, she told a local radio station.
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