THUR JULY 30 2026-theGBJournal| The UN emergency food agency appealed for immediate funding on Wednesday, warning that deepening hunger is undermining the response to an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) that has now infected more than 3,200 people.
“Ebola feeds on delay, fear and hunger,” said Carl Skau, acting Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP). “Stopping this outbreak requires all hands on deck and communities at the centre.”
Declared in eastern DRC on 15 May, the Ebola outbreak is the fastest growing on record. Full-blown Ebola caused by the Bundibugyo virus is marked by severe bleeding and a fatality rate of around 40 per cent.
This is the largest Ebola outbreak caused by the Bundibugyo virus to date, according to the latest update from the World Health Organization (WHO).
48 health zones across five provinces in eastern DRC are affected: Ituri, North Kivu, South Kivu, Tshopo and Haut-Uele.
Ituri, the outbreak’s epicentre, remains one of the country’s most severe hunger hotspots, with 1.9 million people facing crisis levels of food insecurity or worse.
More than 2.65 million people in the 48 Ebola-affected health zones face acute food insecurity, including more than 628,000 people in emergency conditions, according to the UN-backed global monitor Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) issued a stark warning that food assistance and logistics are critical to containing the outbreak.
“Food assistance is frontline Ebola containment,” Mr. Skau said. “It helps families stay home, supports safe isolation, builds trust with communities and keeps health teams moving. We know what works. What we need now is the speed and resources to scale it before this outbreak outruns the response.”
Such efforts also help reduce movement of people in search of food, supports safe isolation, lowers the risk of harmful coping strategies and creates the social conditions for health actors to operate safely and effectively, the agency said.
Meanwhile, the UN is actively helping authorities respond to the outbreak, including through its food agency, WHO and its children’s fund, UNICEF,-UN News
Journal|email:gbj@govbusinessjournal.com|govandbusinessj@gmail.com
