The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is now facing the largest Ebola outbreak in its history, with the World Health Organisation (WHO) warning the virus is spreading faster than the response on the ground.
More than 3 600 people have been infected since the outbreak began in May and nearly 1 600 have died.
The latest reporting week saw the highest number of new cases and deaths so far, underscoring how quickly the disease is accelerating.
The outbreak has now overtaken the country’s devastating 2018 to 2020 epidemic, making it the second-largest Ebola outbreak ever recorded worldwide after West Africa’s outbreak in 2014-2016.
As the UN reports clashes in the South Kivu territories of Uvira, Fizi and Mwenga.
UN Secretary General’s Deputy Spokesperson, Farhan Haq says, “Access to healthcare has been particularly impacted, with damage to health facilities and the departure of medical personnel limiting the availability of medical care in affected areas. These developments come as efforts to contain the Ebola outbreak continue in the province. We reiterate our call on all parties to protect civilians, facilitate safe and sustained humanitarian access, and restore telecommunications, which remain critical for civilian protection, public health efforts and humanitarian operations.”
The crisis is centred in eastern Congo, where conflict, mass displacement and overcrowded camps are making it much harder to stop the spread of Ebola.
This week, UN partner the International Medical Corps is opening the country’s largest Ebola treatment centre, adding 100 beds to the response.
But the World Health Organisation says far more resources are needed to get ahead of the outbreak, warning that insecurity and population movements continue to give the virus new opportunities to spread.
UN Senior Ebola Coordinator, Julien Harneis says, “In support of the government, I’m calling that we step up, across the response, the United Nations, non-governmental organizations, member states. We need to massively step up our response, be it in terms of supplies, specialised supplies like personal protective equipment, staff, specialized medical staff, and logistics as well. And we call upon member states to keep the borders open so that our staff can travel into Congo to respond, so that we can bring in supplies quickly and freely. And then when colleagues come out, they’re able to return home.”
A deadly epidemic exacerbating a long-standing and dire humanitarian situation in the country’s eastern regions – an issue addressed by the World Food Programme’s Acting Executive Director Carl Skau.
“My number one message is that this situation requires much, much more attention. And so, I welcome this opportunity to speak to all of you. This is the fastest growing Ebola crisis ever — Ebola outbreak, ever. To make a comparison, in the past two months, 1,000 people have died. That took eight months for 1 000 people to die in West Africa. So, that means that there is a fourfold increase in terms of the number of deaths in this short period of time. And I think that itself requires world attention.”
Skau tried to convey the complexities of the situation.
“You may think that it’s just about treating the identified patients, but now this requires, from all the experience, we have a broader set of tools, and that includes food. We cannot isolate patients unless we provide them also food. We cannot have health workers working around the clock in these dangerous environments unless they’re also being fed. And, frankly, we also have whole communities who have been closed off and that we expect to remain in their homes, and they also need to be fed.”
Some 10 million people are acutely food insecure in eastern DRC and to sustain all operations in the country for the next six months, WFP requires over 293 million US dollars which includes funding for emergency logistics and food assistance in Ituri and other affected areas.
