Brussels, 08/10/2014 (Agence Europe) - The European Union is organising emergency air transport of vital equipment to the three West African countries most affected by Ebola - Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone - and is to coordinate an evacuation system for international staff, the European Commission announced on Wednesday 8 October. All this is thanks to funding of €4 million from the humanitarian aid funds already pledged.
The allocation of €1 million to Unicef will enable three Boeing 747 planes to be chartered - the first of which will take off from Amsterdam for Freetown, the capital of Liberia, on Friday 9 October in order to transport 100 tonnes of material - individual protection equipment such as masks and gloves, essential medicines and hygiene material.
The remaining €3 million will contribute to implementing the medical evacuation of international staff, if necessary, from Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone via the European Commission's Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC). The ERCC is struggling to become established, but could enable international medical staff contaminated with the Ebola virus to be evacuated by plane in less than 48 hours so that they can be repatriated to medical centres in Europe that are equipped to treat the disease.
“We are in a race against time to fight Ebola. The European Commission alone has so far pledged some €180 million to help the affected countries. Funding is crucial but far from enough. That is why, together with our member states, we have been mobilising in-kind assistance including medical equipment and personnel”, said Kristalina Georgieva, European Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian aid and Crisis Response, in a press release. Tonio Borg, European Commissioner for Health, added that “to strengthen Europe's preparedness to handle Ebola, we have been mobilising solidarity inside the EU. We are working closely so that patients can be treated in an appropriate healthcare facility.”
The announcement of this humanitarian aid airlift comes at a time when the first case of Ebola spreading to Spain has created a stir and resulted, on Wednesday, in a meeting of the EU health security committee (see other article).
The €4 million will be taken from the €30 million envelope of humanitarian aid announced by Barroso at the UN round table on the response to Ebola, which took place in New York on 25 September (see EUROPE 11164). According to WHO figures from 1 October, the Ebola epidemic has already claimed 3,440 lives in West Africa out of 7,478 cases of infection in five countries (Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Senegal). (AN)