United Nations, June 19 (IANS) UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher has allocated $4 million from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to support the Ugandan government’s response to Ebola, a UN spokesperson said.The newly-released funding is part of a CERF allocation of up to 60 million dollars announced at the end of May to strengthen the response. The funding will support United Nations operations across 29 districts in Uga…
Latest Democratic Republic of the Congo News & Updates
Kinshasa, June 19 (IANS) The number of confirmed Ebola cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has risen to 896, including 232 deaths, the country’s public health authorities said.Twenty-one new confirmed cases, including six deaths, were reported Wednesday in the eastern provinces of Ituri and North Kivu, the health ministry said in its daily update. The outbreak, caused by the Bundibugyo ebolavirus, has affected 33 health zones across three eastern provinces –Ituri, North Kivu and…
United Nations, June 18 (IANS) Violent armed groups, some briefly detaining aid workers, are obstructing the Ebola response in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), UN humanitarians said.The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that five response workers were briefly detained on Tuesday by armed groups in Ituri province, the epicenter of the Ebola outbreak, accounting for more than 90 percent of all confirmed cases.The office said that in South Kivu pr…
Kinshasa, June 14 (IANS) The number of confirmed Ebola cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has risen to 710, including 149 deaths, the country’s health ministry said, while dismissing social media rumors that a nationwide lockdown had been imposed in response to the outbreak.The case fatality rate stood at 21.0 percent, according to figures released by the ministry. A total of 324 patients were in isolation or hospitalized, while 35 people had recovered.The ministry said the gove…
Kinshasa, June 13 (IANS) The number of confirmed Ebola cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has risen to 689, including 139 deaths, according to the latest situation report released by the country’s health authorities.A total of 17 new confirmed cases, including five deaths, were reported on Thursday, all in the eastern province of Ituri, the report said. The outbreak, caused by the Bundibugyo strain of the Ebola virus, has affected 29 health zones across three eastern provinces, …
Kampala, June 11 (IANS) Uganda’s Ministry of Health has announced additional Ebola prevention measures aimed at curbing the possible spread of the disease.Speaking after Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni’s national address on the Ebola outbreak on Wednesday (local time), Health Minister Chris Baryomunsi said Ebola prevention guidelines have been distributed to all districts bordering the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, the epicentre of the current outbreak.Baryomunsi said mass gatherin…
Kinshasa, June 11 (IANS) The number of confirmed Ebola cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has risen to 635 as of June 9, Health Minister Roger Kamba has said. In a post on social media platform X on Wednesday (local time), Kamba said the outbreak, caused by the Bundibugyo Ebola virus, continues to pose challenges, but the response is gaining momentum, with more patients recovering and contact tracing improving,, reports Xinhua news agency.According to Kamba, the proportion of co…
Washington, June 9, (IANS) The United States on Tuesday urged countries around the world to step up efforts to contain the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda, saying Washington has already mobilised extensive resources and that broader international action is needed to prevent further spread of the virus.Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed US-European coordination on the outbreak during a call with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, acco…
Addis Ababa, June 9 (IANS) Confirmed Ebola cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda have surpassed 600 as response efforts face operational constraints, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said Tuesday.In its latest outbreak update, the African Union’s specialised continental public health agency said confirmed Ebola cases in the DRC and Uganda have reached 608, with the death toll climbing to 102 as of Monday, representing a case fatality rat…
Geneva, June 9 (IANS) The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is expanding rapidly, with rising case numbers, wider geographic spread and cross-border transmission to Uganda, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.In its latest update, WHO currently assesses the risk as very high for DRC, high for Uganda and neighbouring countries sharing land borders with affected areas, and low for the rest of the African region and globally.As of Sunday, DRC has reported 515 confirm…