AU says more than $55m pledged to fight Ebola in Africa
By Muhammad Auwal
The Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Moussa Mahamat, said more than $55 million have been pledged along with other in-kind supports and assistance to Africa’s fight against Ebola.
The pledged was made at an event organised by the AU in Addis Ababa with the theme “Africa against Ebola Private Sector and Partner Forum.”
Mahamat solicited resources from AU member states and other partners for supporting its efforts to end Ebola virus disease (EVD) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and contain it from spreading.
Efforts to speedily contain the virus have been hampered by security challenges posed by the armed conflict zones in Eastern DRC.
This continues to pose a grave concern on the security of the locals but also the response teams on the ground.
The current Ebola outbreak in the DRC was declared on Aug. 1, 2018 and the World Health Organisation in August this year declared the Ebola outbreak in the DRC as public health emergency of international concern.
Speaking at a news conference after the Forum, the AU Commissioner for Social Affairs, Amira El-fadil, said the event was successful and the participants have pledged to provide financial and in-kind support of different types.
“There is solidarity been shown from all the participants that these pledges will be financial and in-kind; and it will be directed to support the government of DRC for the preparedness.
“The pledge will be used for the response for building the capacity of the country to fight and to tackle Ebola, and even other epidemics,” the commissioner said.
“The financial pledges, the total amount is 55 million plus; the largest contributor is the European Union. We have also in-kind support; we have the human resources support, with the pledges made by some of member states in Africa.
Also we have member states, they said they will give in-kind medical products and vaccines; there is pledging on building the capacity of the human resources, sending also epidemiologists,” said Elfadil.
She commended those that have made the pledges to provide financial and in-kind support, he noted that the AU would have another similar event in February 2020 to mobilise more resources to support Africa in the fight against Ebola Forum.
