UN Chief Urges $1.1 Billion in Urgent Funding to Halt Ebola Spread
UN Secretary-General António Guterres calls for $1.1 billion in additional funding to combat the fastest-growing Ebola epidemic on record.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on Thursday appealed for an additional $1.1 billion in urgent funding to combat the Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, warning that current resources will be exhausted within weeks.
The UN’s $2.13 billion humanitarian response plan is only 48 percent funded, largely due to a major contribution from the United States. Guterres stressed that without new money, vital operations will run out of support just as they need to expand.
Describing the outbreak as the fastest-growing Ebola epidemic on record, Guterres said it is spreading faster and wider than the response to contain it. He noted that while the disease can be stopped, the world must also overcome what he called “the virus of indifference.”
The outbreak is unfolding in one of the world’s most fragile settings. Three decades of conflict in Ituri province alone have displaced one million people and severely weakened access to food, healthcare, and basic services. Across the region, more than 12 million people need humanitarian assistance and protection.
Guterres outlined five priorities: expanding community engagement to build trust and counter misinformation, strengthening surveillance to identify and isolate cases more rapidly, increasing treatment and care capacity, expanding safe and dignified burials, and preventing further spread.
The current outbreak, declared in mid-May but believed to have been spreading since February, has grown from three health zones to nearly 60. Most cases and deaths have occurred outside the network of monitored contacts. The rare Bundibugyo virus causing the outbreak has no approved vaccines or treatments, though clinical trials have begun.
Efforts to control the outbreak—including restrictions on public gatherings, social distancing, and airport closures—have disrupted life in six affected provinces, particularly Ituri, which has been ravaged by rebel violence.
Guterres said the world still has an opportunity to get ahead of the crisis, but time is not on its side. “The world has the knowledge, the means, and the resources to stop this outbreak,” he said. “It is time to summon the collective determination to act before the cost becomes more deadly, more difficult, and more expensive.”