Thousands of Liberian children in pristine uniforms flocked back to school on Monday as classrooms opened their doors for the first time after a six-month hiatus designed to stem the spread of the worst Ebola outbreak in history.
Dozens of schools reopened, in a sign the outbreak is ebbing in Liberia, once its epicenter. The epidemic has killed more than 9,000 people there and in Sierra Leone and Guinea.
The closures were yet another setback for a country whose health system and economy, based on diamonds, coffee and cocoa, were devastated by the virus.