A rare Ebola strain is colliding with widespread food insecurity in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the neighboring Uganda.
The health crisis comes at a particularly dangerous moment in DRC: 26.5 million people countrywide are already facing acute food insecurity, with needs far outpacing the response. Indeed, the epicenter of the current health crisis is in the heart of the World Food Programme's (WFP) operational areas of eastern DRC, positioning us to play a key role in supporting the overall response.
WFP is working with the Government of DRC, the World Health Organization and other partners to support the humanitarian response to the outbreak, including by facilitating the movement of responders, medical supplies and essential cargo into hard-to-reach areas. Already WFP has transported dozens of aid workers and medical supplies to affected places, and we stand ready to scale up.
Additionally, we are providing life-saving food and nutrition assistance to patients, survivors, contacts, and affected households. Moreover, through the WFP-managed UN Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS), we are enabling access to remote and insecure locations, including in Ituri.
WFP brings extensive experience from previous DRC Ebola responses. That includes the 2017 Ebola outbreak in northern Bas-Uélé province, where WFP provided not only critical logistics support, but also food assistance to affected households so they could safely isolate and break the chains of transmission.
