Sunday, August 16, 2026 - The Ebola outbreak in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) – the fastest-growing on record and on track to become the deadliest – is killing one person every 30 minutes.
“Ebola is winning in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo,” UN humanitarian affairs chief Tom Fletcher
said. “We cannot let the virus outrun our response.”
Alongside the startling current fatality rate, Mr. Fletcher announced on
Friday that he has allocated an additional $30.5 million from the
UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) – building on the $24 million previously
allocated to the DRC and its neighbors to tackle the outbreak.
The UN’s humanitarian office (OCHA) recently deployed a
further 20 staff to the epicentre of the outbreak, but Mr. Fletcher said more
may be needed to slow the spread.
Declared on 15 May by national authorities in the DRC, the
Ebola Bundibugyo outbreak has now killed 2,184 people – nearly 47 per cent
of those who have been infected.
Six of the DRC’s 26 provinces have recorded Ebola cases, and
Uganda has reported 20 cases.
“This is a wake-up call,” Mr. Fletcher said.” We need speed,
scale and solidarity before this virus gets even further ahead of
us.”
Starting tomorrow, the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) will
bring its hot meal programme to additional Ebola treatment centres in Ituri and
other provinces, UN spokesperson Daniela Gross said on Friday.
Civilians in the North Kivu and South Kivu provinces are
simultaneously dealing with Ebola and the ongoing conflict between the
Congolese military and Rwanda-backed M23 militia.
Ituri province remains the heart of the outbreak; of the
more than 4,660 cases total, Ituri has recorded over 3,400.
Across eastern DRC, 2.6 million people are seriously
malnourished, with more than half located in Ituri.
Since the end of May, WFP has provided more than
260,000 hot meals at treatment and isolation centres in Ituri, North Kivu
and South Kivu provinces.
Following Friday’s meeting of the UN’s Inter-Agency
Standing Committee, Mr. Fletcher said the world’s largest humanitarian
organisations had agreed to scale up the global Ebola response.
Still, Ms. Gross said that civilians’ needs in the DRC far
outpace the Ebola response, and that more support is needed.
In order to protect lives across the region, Mr. Fletcher
said the UN and its partners responding to Ebola must double the number of
teams ensuring safe and dignified burials, triple the treatment capacity,
improve contact tracing, and deploy more experienced managers.
They also need to keep providing water, hygiene and
healthcare assistance to those affected by the both outbreak and the years-long
conflict between multiple armed groups and national troops which is
complicating the fight against Ebola.
Food insecurity assistance is only 25 per cent funded,
highlighting the need for additional funding for lifesaving food aid.
“The world needs to wake up and show up,” Mr. Fletcher
said.
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