The United Nations is releasing up to $60 million to contain an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and neighbouring countries, its relief chief said Friday.
The money comes from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund and will support containment in the DRC and surrounding nations facing higher transmission risk, said Tom Fletcher, the UN emergency relief coordinator.
“We need to get ahead of this Ebola outbreak,” Fletcher said, warning that response teams are working in some of the world’s most difficult conditions.
The outbreak involves the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, for which there are no approved vaccines or treatments. Only two earlier outbreaks of the strain have been recorded, in Uganda in 2007 and the DRC in 2012, and the absence of medical tools complicates efforts to contain it quickly.
The World Health Organization (WHO), led by Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, is coordinating the medical response and has raised the national risk for the DRC to very high, while rating the global risk low. WHO has confirmed 82 cases and seven deaths but says the true scale is likely far larger, with nearly 750 suspected cases and 177 suspected deaths.
The response is unfolding amid conflict, mass displacement and deep mistrust of outside authorities. Violence has already disrupted operations, with protesters setting fire to a treatment centre in Ituri, the province worst affected, where authorities have banned funeral wakes.
Fletcher said responders needed uninterrupted access by air, land and water, including to areas held by armed groups, warning that any obstruction could let the virus spread further.
Uganda and South Sudan are tightening border surveillance and early detection amid fears of transmission across the region. UN officials said the strategy drew on past outbreaks, prioritising community engagement, decentralised monitoring and public trust over heavily policed measures that previously fuelled resistance. More UN staff and specialists were due to deploy over the weekend.
