Hundreds of Millions for DR Congo Ebola Response Not Reaching Intended Recipients, MSF Warns

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), the international medical aid group also known as Doctors Without Borders, has warned that hundreds of millions of dollars meant to fight Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo are not reaching the people they were intended for. The warning was reported by the BBC.

Ebola is a severe viral disease. The current outbreak in DR Congo was declared in May, and more than 11,000 people have been infected since then. More than 5,400 have died. The outbreak is now the second deadliest Ebola outbreak ever recorded.

The virus behind this outbreak belongs to the Bundibugyo species, one of several species of Ebola virus. There is no approved vaccine for it. Cases linked to the DR Congo outbreak have also been reported in Kenya, Uganda and Nigeria.

The funding concerns center on the response effort. Africa CDC, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, said that $700 million of the $962 million disbursed to organisations carrying out the Ebola response could not be accounted for. The same report includes MSF's account of conditions on the ground.

MSF cited cases in which healthcare workers were not being paid or trained. It also cited ambulances left to run without fuel. According to MSF, two-thirds of Ebola deaths were occurring in communities rather than in treatment centres.

MSF urged the Congolese government and United Nations agencies to strengthen oversight and accountability for Ebola response funds.