As the Ebola outbreak spread across Sierra Leone, the need for decentralised operational hubs became increasingly urgent. In Moyamba, a strategically located district supporting expanding response activities, the International Humanitarian Partnership (IHP) established a second base camp to accommodate and coordinate incoming humanitarian personnel.
Read more about the Moyamba base camp here.
Similar to other parts of the country, Moyamba suffered from fragile telecommunications infrastructure, further weakened by the operational pressures of the crisis. Reliable internet connectivity was largely unavailable, limiting the ability of responders to coordinate activities, exchange information, and maintain links with national and international command structures.
To address this, Luxembourg deployed a second emergency.lu system to the Moyamba IHP base camp. The system delivered stable, satellite-based internet connectivity, independent of the unreliable local networks and unaffected by fluctuations in infrastructure or service provision.
With this capability in place, the Moyamba base camp rapidly evolved into a fully operational support platform for the Ebola response. The connectivity enabled:
- Continuous communication between field teams and coordination centres
- Real-time reporting and data sharing to support outbreak monitoring
- Effective logistics coordination for medical personnel, equipment, and supplies
- Integration into the broader UN system supporting the Ebola response
Although Moyamba was less immediately visible than heavily impacted districts like Port Loko, its role as a support and coordination hub made it essential to the overall response architecture. The emergency.lu deployment ensured that this hub remained connected, functional, and aligned with the wider operational effort.
Together with the Port Loko deployment, the operation in Moyamba demonstrated the importance of scalable, rapidly deployable communications infrastructure in supporting distributed response operations. By ensuring reliable connectivity in both locations, emergency.lu contributed to maintaining the coherence, speed, and effectiveness of one of the largest humanitarian health responses in recent history.
