Brussels, 10/07/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 10 July, the European Commission announced that Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia - the three countries most hard hit by the Ebola epidemic - will be able to count on around €450 million in EU aid for the recovery of their economies.
This pledge of commitment of new funding was made at the donors' conference bringing together representatives from the international community and the heads of state and government of the three Ebola-affected countries. The pledge was made in support of their respective recovery plans.
“The emergency is not over until we are down to zero Ebola cases. With some new cases in Liberia, we remain on high alert and our determination to eradicate Ebola is stronger than ever”, said European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management Christos Stylianides.
The sum of €171.4 million will be given to Sierra Leone, €121 million to Liberia, and €148.9 million to Guinea. Another €8 million will be added to this for all the countries affected by the virus so as to finance multi-country projects.
This aid will finance programmes across a broad range of areas - health, agriculture, infrastructure, education, public hygiene, macro-economic stability and transport.
“It's important to remember that this Ebola epidemic has not just had an impact on the health care of the countries affected. It has also crippled their economies, kept children out of school and brought trade to a standstill”, said European Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development Neven Mimica.
This new pledge of aid will bring the total amount of aid to €869 million that has been committed by the European Commission to fight the Ebola epidemic. Most of this sum (€600 million) is development aid to support the economic recovery plans of the three countries. The most recently updated plans were submitted to the international community on 9 July.
The donors' conference on 10 July took place as part of the two-day high level conference (9-10 July) organised by the United Nations in cooperation with the governments of the three African countries, and in partnership with the EU, the African Union, the African Development Bank and the World Bank. (Aminata Niang)