Africa secures $498.8m Ebola response pledges

African governments and international partners have pledged nearly $498.8 million to strengthen efforts against the ongoing outbreak of the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola affecting parts of Central and East Africa.

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The announcement was made by Jean Kaseya, head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, following a high-level ministerial meeting focused on coordinating the continent’s response to the outbreak.

Kaseya said the commitments reflected growing African solidarity and cooperation as countries work together to contain the spread of the virus and strengthen regional health security systems. According to him, rapid response measures, coordination between governments and public trust remain critical as the outbreak continues to evolve in a challenging environment.

The outbreak is being driven by the rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, which currently has no approved vaccine or targeted treatment. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organization, recently warned that the epidemic was “outpacing” response efforts, with the reported death toll rising to 220.

Bundibugyo ebolavirus is among the rarest Ebola strains known to infect humans and has previously been linked to only two outbreaks, one in Uganda in 2007 and another in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2012. Most existing Ebola vaccines and antibody treatments were developed specifically for the more widespread Zaire strain, which caused the devastating West African epidemic between 2014 and 2016 that killed more than 11,000 people.

Last week, Tom Fletcher, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, announced that the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs had allocated up to $60 million from its emergency response fund to support containment operations.

The funding announcement came shortly after the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. Major financial commitments announced during the ministerial meeting included approximately $160 million from the World Bank for the Congo response, $82 million from the United States and roughly $57 million from European partners.

The outbreak continues to spread across parts of Central Africa, particularly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda. Health authorities in the DRC have reported more than 900 suspected cases, including over 100 confirmed infections, alongside hundreds of suspected deaths linked to the outbreak.

Uganda has so far confirmed seven Ebola cases and one death, with officials saying several of the infections are directly connected to the earliest confirmed cases. Public health experts continue to warn that the absence of an approved vaccine for the Bundibugyo strain could complicate efforts to contain the epidemic if transmission accelerates further.