{"id":513153,"date":"2026-07-03T11:30:39","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T15:30:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.net\/en\/uncategorized\/who-lack-of-funding-and-conflict-in-the-dr-congo-hinder-ebola-response\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T11:43:56","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T15:43:56","slug":"who-lack-of-funding-and-conflict-in-the-dr-congo-hinder-ebola-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/international\/who-lack-of-funding-and-conflict-in-the-dr-congo-hinder-ebola-response\/","title":{"rendered":"WHO: lack of funding and conflict in the DR Congo hinder Ebola response"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Nairobi.-<\/em><\/strong> The World Health Organization<\/em><\/strong> (WHO<\/a>) stated this Friday that the lack of funding and the conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are hindering the response to the Ebola outbreak declared on May 15.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The WHO Regional Director for Africa, Mohamed Janabi, described the epidemiological situation as “alarming” and denounced that the promises of the international community have not translated into operational capital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more: WHO: Risk of disease outbreak in Venezuela increases after earthquakes<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy message to the partners and donors listening to us is very clear: you know our initial budget estimated at 518 million dollars. Many funding promises have been made, but the actual money has not yet reached the accounts,\u201d Janabi stated in a virtual press conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After 45 days of field operations to contain the spread of the Bundibugyo strain, the WHO regional director warned that the combination of armed violence and financial strangulation threatens to spiral out of control a crisis that is already projected to reach \u201c1,500 confirmed cases in the DRC by the middle of this month.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last June, the WHO and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) reported that the response to the outbreak now requires $1.4 billion, and that so far only 13% of the $910 million pledged has been delivered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conflict and Ebola in the DRC<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

For his part, the person in charge of the medical response in the DRC, Pierre Akilimani, warned that health brigades are carrying out their tasks under the direct impact of insecurity in the provinces of Ituri and North Kivu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The presence of militias sabotages mandatory contact tracing due to the violent incidents suffered by civilian teams on the ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the 1990s, the east of the DRC has been experiencing a conflict fueled by rebel groups such as the March 23 Movement (M23), supported by Rwanda, and the Congolese Army, despite the deployment of the UN peacekeeping mission (MONUSCO).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe current security context makes it extremely difficult to locate contacts, as our teams are suffering attacks. Community engagement remains a challenge and we have had reports of treatment centers that have been set on fire,\u201d admitted Akilimani.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On this point, the WHO regional emergency director, Marie Belizaire, remarked that the virus is circulating in an insecure environment due to the armed conflict, which prevents medical teams from reaching the most remote communities, \u201cwhich are the ones that concentrate the highest number of infections.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSecond, due to the extremely high risk of cross-border spread: 15 of the 20 confirmed cases in Uganda were imported from the DRC. This entire conflict zone also borders South Sudan, and South Sudan’s health capacity to manage an emergency of this type is extremely worrying,\u201d added Belizaire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blizaire also warned that the flow of international funding is not keeping pace with operational needs on the ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are not saying that Ebola is going to turn into a global pandemic, but a virus does not understand borders. The pathogen circulates in an ecosystem of complex humanitarian crisis and, if containment is delayed, the regional and periodic exportation of cases is guaranteed,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The WHO underscored the magnitude of the crisis in the DRC, where the current 447 deaths and 1,460 infections surpass all previous outbreaks of the Bundibugyo variant combined. The figures from Uganda in 2007, with 131 cases and 42 deaths, or those from the DRC itself in 2012, when the virus caused 57 infections and 29 deaths, are far behind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nairobi.- The World Health Organization (WHO) stated this Friday that the lack of funding and the conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are hindering the response to the Ebola outbreak declared on May 15. The WHO Regional Director for Africa, Mohamed Janabi, described the epidemiological situation as “alarming” and denounced that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":513154,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[95],"tags":[43601,44182,40997,40231,43791,16568,40853,40983],"class_list":["post-513153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-international","tag-breakingnews","tag-cover","tag-disease","tag-dominican-republic","tag-dr","tag-ebola","tag-thetruthnewspaper","tag-who"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/phj1q1-29uF","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/07\/Plantilla-para-portal-2026-07-03T112823.175.jpg","dum_api":{"author_name":"EFE","author_image":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/1200px-EFE_logo.svg-96x96.png","categories_name":["International"],"featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cdn.deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/07\/Plantilla-para-portal-2026-07-03T112823.175.jpg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=513153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/513154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}