<\/p>\n
The WFP has appealed for urgent funding, warning that food insecurity is undermining efforts to contain the Ebola outbreak in the DRC, where more than 3 200 people have been infected.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The outbreak was declared in eastern DRC on May 15 and has become the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak on record. The current outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, which can cause severe bleeding and has a fatality rate of about 40%.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
WFP Acting Executive Director Carl Skau said food assistance is critical to slowing the spread of the disease. \u201cEbola feeds on delay, fear and hunger,\u201d Skau said. \u201cStopping this outbreak requires all hands on deck and communities at the centre.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
According to the World Health Organisation, this is the largest Ebola outbreak caused by the Bundibugyo virus to date. The disease has affected 48 health zones across Ituri, North Kivu, South Kivu, Tshopo and Haut-Uele provinces.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ituri, the epicentre of the outbreak, is also one of DRC\u2019s most severe hunger hotspots, with 1.9 million people facing crisis levels of food insecurity or worse.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Across the 48 affected health zones, more than 2.65 million people face acute food insecurity, including more than 628 000 people in emergency conditions, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification. \u201cFood assistance is frontline Ebola containment,\u201d Skau said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Skau said food support helps families remain at home, supports safe isolation, builds trust with communities and keeps health teams moving. \u201cWe know what works. What we need now is the speed and resources to scale it before this outbreak outruns the response,\u201d Skau said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
WFP said food assistance reduces the movement of people searching for food, lowers the risk of harmful coping strategies and creates conditions that allow health workers to operate safely.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Since the outbreak began, the UN Humanitarian Air Service has operated 495 flights, transported 3 395 humanitarian responders and delivered 56 metric tonnes of essential cargo to frontline locations.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
WFP has also delivered more than 160 000 hot meals to patients, contacts and frontline workers in 17 treatment and isolation centres. Dry food rations have reached 23 000 people in North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri, including 14 000 people under quarantine.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
An additional 36 000 people in Ebola-affected zones have received general food assistance.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
WFP said insecurity, access constraints, unrest and limited operational capacity are complicating surveillance, supply deliveries and the scale-up of response operations.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The agency needs $293.6 million to sustain operations in DRC over the next six months, including emergency logistics and food assistance in Ituri and other affected areas.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
–UN\/ChannelAfrica–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":41064,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-41063","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"The World Food Programme (WFP) says worsening hunger is weakening efforts to contain the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).","published_date":"","news_description":"The World Food Programme (WFP) says worsening hunger is weakening efforts to contain the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/41063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/41063\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41065,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/41063\/revisions\/41065"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=41063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}