Snakes bar Liberian President Weah from office

Liberian President George Weah has been barred from his office for five days by two black snakes that slithered into the building this week, authorities said Friday.

The foreign ministry where Weah, a former striker with the Paris Saint-German and AC Milan football clubs, has his office must be fumigated to chase out the reptiles, which showed up near the ground-floor elevator on Wednesday.

A ministry statement said that all operations including the issuance of passports and visas were suspended until April 24 owing to the presence of toxic fumes.

"Indeed, the fumigation exercise was triggered by the presence of the snakes," presidential spokesman Smith Tobay told AFP.

The sole African to win the top Ballon D'Or award, in 1995, Weah became Liberian president in January 2018, succeeding Ellen Johnson, the continent's first woman head of state.

The impoverished country suffered from a 1989-2003 civil war, and a deadly Ebola epidemic from 2014-2016.