More than 5,400 people have died and roughly 11,000 have been infected in the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo since it was declared in May, according to local authorities, as the medical aid group Médecins Sans Frontières warns that money meant for the response is not reaching the workers and communities fighting it.
MSF said in comments reported by AllAfrica that health workers in affected areas are going unpaid, are poorly trained, and lack essential medical supplies, while some ambulances have run out of fuel entirely. The group called for stronger financial oversight and accountability over response funding, and separately warned that weak disease surveillance and gaps in contact tracing are allowing infections to go undetected.
Hundreds of millions unaccounted for
The funding concerns echo a broader controversy that has built since mid-October, when Africa CDC Director-General Jean Kaseya said donors had disbursed roughly $962 million directly to organizations implementing the response, but that more than $700 million of it could not be traced. Only about 30% of partner organizations provided financial information during a recent verification exercise, according to Semafor's reporting on the gap. Africa CDC has said it is too early to allege embezzlement but has warned it could revoke organizations' permission to operate in the country if they don't cooperate.
The outbreak, caused by the Bundibugyo strain of the virus, has been described by MSF as the fastest-growing on record, spreading across Ituri, North Kivu, South Kivu, Tshopo and Haut-Uélé provinces. More than 60% of deaths have occurred in communities rather than treatment centers, a pattern public health officials say points to continued gaps in reaching patients early.
What happens next
The UN's senior Ebola coordinator has said the WHO and Africa CDC have a joint system for tracking donor disbursements, pushing back on suggestions that funds have simply vanished. But with case counts still climbing and accountability questions unresolved, aid groups are warning that the response risks losing momentum just as it needs to scale up.