The EU is stepping up humanitarian support with an additional €5 million as the Democratic Republic of Congo continues to experience its biggest Ebola outbreak to date. The confirmed death toll of the epidemic now stands at over 1,000 people, the European Commission announced on Monday 13 May.
These funds, released from the budget of the Commission's ECHO Humanitarian Aid department, will bring the total EU funding since the outbreak of the epidemic in August 2018 (see EUROPE 12122/11) to around €17 million.
The EU funding announced today supports the World Health Organization as well as other partners to ensure access to health care and infection and prevention measures, working with local communities to promote understanding, acceptance and support of the response, and social protection and nutritional support to survivors and their families.
The Ebola epidemic has so far been confined to North Kivu and Ituri, two provinces in the east of DRC, torn apart by long-standing conflicts that are aggravating an already fragile humanitarian situation.
“The EU is committed to continue helping partners and the authorities fight Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo for as long as it takes”, said Christos Stylianides, the European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management, in a statement. He stressed that the epidemic “remains a serious threat” and said that aid workers must also be free to “do their lifesaving job without the threat of violence”. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)