Ebola-hit Sierra Leone goes back to schoole

Freetown (AFP) - Sierra Leone's 1.8 million children began the gradual return to school on Tuesday, more than eight months after classes were shut to halt the spread of the deadly Ebola virus.

Classrooms have been empty since the government announced a state of emergency in July last year in response to an outbreak which has killed at least 10,600 people, almost all of them in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.

More than 3,850 of the deaths were in Sierra Leone alone, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).