Hundreds of Millions in Ebola Funding Unaccounted for as DR Congo Outbreak Spreads
Hundreds of millions of dollars allocated to fight Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo are failing to reach patients, communities and the workers leading the response, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) says. The charity describes the outbreak as still “out of control” and warns of a serious gap between money disbursed and resources available on the ground.
More than 5,400 people have died and 11,000 have been infected since the outbreak was declared in May, making it the second-deadliest Ebola outbreak ever recorded. MSF says healthcare workers have gone unpaid or lacked training, ambulances have run out of fuel, and medical facilities have faced shortages of water, chlorine and triage equipment. Some surveillance teams exist only on paper, while contact tracing remains deeply inadequate; two-thirds of deaths are occurring in communities rather than treatment centres.
The warning follows an Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention report that $700m of the $962m disbursed to organisations involved in the response was unaccounted for. Africa CDC chief Jean Kaseya called this a major transparency and financial reporting failure, while saying it was too early to label it embezzlement. MSF is calling for stronger oversight and better targeting of resources, particularly in Haut-Uélé, which it says has been overlooked, and North Kivu, where the response has been too slow. Conflict, poor roads and rebel control of parts of eastern DR Congo are making containment harder, while the rare Bundibugyo virus has spread to Kenya, Uganda and Nigeria.
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