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Add to Preferred SourcesThe problems of eradicating Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are not only medical but also linked “to a variety of political and social factors”, the head of the UN mission in the country told the Security Council.
“Along with continuing high levels of community distrust around the response to the epidemic”, Leila Zerrougui – UN Special Representative and head of the UN’s Stabilization Mission (MONUSCO) – said that militants, including the ADF and Mai-Mai groups, have caused “a deadly environment” for the people working to counter the virus, “to the point of being specifically threatened and killed by armed groups”.
She stated that the Ebola epidemic has now “claimed the lives of more than 1,700 people” and recent isolated cases in Goma and across the border in Uganda “have heightened concerns about its spread outside of the Beni and Butembo areas”.
This led the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare the epidemic an official Public Health Emergency of International Concern last week. Ms. Zerrougui also underlined the “serious need” to finance the response to other epidemiological and humanitarian crises in the DRC.
“The measles outbreak, for example, has already claimed the lives of more than 2,000 people since the beginning of this year, even more than Ebola”, she said.
The MONUSCO chief told the Chamber that the mission was adopting a “One UN approach” that combines different tools at both national and provincial levels, to defuse social and political tensions.
MONUSCO supports both Congolese security forces and is responding itself to armed groups, she said, as well as helping strengthen the Congolese justice system to fight impunity.
On the humanitarian front, she said MONUSCO is also providing support to the newly appointed UN Ebola Emergency Response Coordinator.
Original source: UN News
Published on 24 July 2019