UNITED NATIONS, July 17 — UN humanitarians on Thursday expressed deep concern over escalating violence affecting the Ebola response in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that an incident reportedly involving armed men occurred near an Ebola treatment center in Nyankunde, Ituri province on Wednesday, with no patients or health workers injured. Care services resumed Thursday morning for four critically ill Ebola patients.
The worsening security situation has forced several humanitarian partners involved in the Ebola response to temporarily relocate staff to Ituri’s capital Bunia. Access to the treatment center and surrounding communities remains constrained, OCHA said.
As of Tuesday, the DRC’s health authorities reported 2,073 confirmed Ebola cases across five provinces. Ituri remains the epicenter of the outbreak, accounting for nearly 90 percent of all confirmed cases, said the office.
The humanitarian community on Thursday released a revised humanitarian response plan for the remainder of the year, increasing funding requirements from 1.4 billion U.S. dollars to 2.3 billion dollars, including 313 million dollars dedicated to the Ebola response, said OCHA.
The office called on all parties to protect health workers and health facilities and to ensure safe and sustained access to affected communities.
In neighboring Rwanda, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher has allocated 2 million dollars from the Central Emergency Response Fund to strengthen Ebola readiness in the country.
Although no cases have been reported in Rwanda, there is a high risk of cross-border spread to Rwanda due to the movement of people across the border from eastern DRC. The risk is compounded by displacement and pressure on health systems, said OCHA. (Namibia Daily News / Xinhua)
