“Ebola feeds on delay, fear and hunger“, said Carl Skau, Acting Executive Director of the World Food Program (WFP). “Stopping this outbreak requires all hands on deck and communities at the center. “
Declared in eastern DRC on May 15, the Ebola epidemic is the fastest growing on record. Large-scale Ebola caused by the Bundibugyo virus is characterized by severe hemorrhage and a mortality rate of around 40 percent.
What you need to know
- This is the largest Ebola outbreak caused by the Bundibugyo virus to date, according to the latest update from the World Health Organization (WHO).
- 48 health zones spread across five provinces in eastern DRC are affected: Ituri, North Kivu, South Kivu, Tshopo and Haut-Uélé
- Ituri, the epicenter of the outbreak, remains one of the country’s most severe hunger hotspots, with 1.9 million people facing critical levels of food insecurity or worse.
- More than 2.65 million people in the 48 Ebola-affected health zones face acute food insecurity, including more than 628,000 people in emergency conditions, according to the UN-backed global monitoring body, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).
“Food is on the front line to contain Ebola”
The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) has issued a stark warning that food assistance and logistics are essential to containing the outbreak.
“Food aid is the first line in containing Ebola,” Skau said. “This helps families stay home, promotes safe isolation, builds trust with communities, and keeps health teams moving.” We know what works. What we need now is the speed and resources to scale it up before this outbreak outpaces the response..”
Such efforts also help reduce the movement of people in search of food, promote safe isolation, reduce the risk of harmful coping strategies, and create the social conditions for health actors to operate safely and effectively, the agency said.
What is the UN doing?
The UN is actively helping authorities respond to the outbreak, including through its food agency, WHO, and its children’s fund, UNICEF.
Here are highlights of some of WFP’s efforts in the DRC:
- Since the start of the outbreak, the United Nations Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) has conducted 495 flights, transported 3,395 humanitarian responders and delivered 56 tonnes of essential goods to frontline sites, including in newly affected provinces such as Haut-Uele and Tshopo.
- WFP delivered more than 160,000 hot meals to patients, contacts and frontline workers in 17 treatment and isolation centers.
- WFP also provided dry food rations to 23,000 people in North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri, including 14,000 people in quarantine, with monthly food aid.
- An additional 36,000 people in Ebola-affected areas received general food assistance
The challenges ahead
Speed and resources are the main challenges, and each delay gives Ebola more room to spread, while gaps in logistics, food assistance and community support risk weakening containment efforts, according to the WFP.
At the same time, insecurity, access constraints, community unrest and limited operational capacity in newly affected areas continue to complicate surveillance, supply movements and scaling up the response.
To support all operations in the DRC over the next six months, WFP requires $293.6 million, which includes funding for emergency logistics and food aid in Ituri and other affected areas.
Learn more about the UN response to Ebola here.
Watch now
Watch the daily midday press briefing at UN headquarters in New York, where WFP’s Mr. Skau and the UN’s lead Ebola coordinator, Julien Harneis, share the latest updates on response efforts on the ground via video conference from Bunia, DRC, and answer questions from the press:
