KINSHASA, DRC – The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and its international partners have launched an updated 180-day multisectoral response plan to combat the ongoing Ebola outbreak, seeking a substantial $1.3 billion in funding to intensify efforts over the next six months .
The revised operational roadmap, developed in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO), the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), and other key partners, comes as the outbreak continues to spread. According to the latest data from the WHO Regional Office for Africa, the outbreak caused by the Bundibugyo virus has reached 6,342 reported cases and 3,072 deaths, affecting 60 health zones across six provinces since the start of the outbreak .
Health authorities have expressed grave concern over the pattern of transmission. A large proportion of deaths are occurring in communities, often among individuals who were not previously identified as contacts and who died before reaching health facilities . This indicates significant gaps in surveillance and contact tracing that the new plan aims to address.
“Containing the outbreak requires efforts beyond the health sector, involving communities, government agencies, partners, and donors,” stated DRC Health Minister Roger Kamba . “The government is fully mobilized to protect every Congolese,” he added .
The urgent need for a coordinated and well-funded response was emphasized by Anne Ancia, acting WHO representative in the DRC. “Every case detected too late, every contact missed, and every delay in mobilizing resources translates into lives lost,” she warned, calling for rapid and coordinated action on a larger scale .
The updated 180-day plan is intended to serve as the comprehensive operational strategy for the response, which has become the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak ever recorded in the DRC . It seeks to combine community engagement with robust health measures to stem the tide of the virus. Damien Mama, United Nations resident coordinator in the DRC, stressed that the Ebola response must be integrated into the broader humanitarian effort and supported by sufficient, flexible, and predictable funding .
The Africa CDC has pledged continued support for national response efforts, including resource mobilization, coordination with partners, and greater involvement of communities . The full implementation of the revised plan, as estimated by WHO, requires the $1.3 billion in funding to cover a wide range of activities, from emergency coordination and disease surveillance to infection prevention, community engagement, and logistics .
