UN calls on more int’l support as Ebola outbreak spreads exponentially in DR Congo

A UN official on Friday called for greater international support to urgently scale up Ebola response operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), warning that the outbreak is spreading exponentially and outpacing current containment efforts.

Briefing journalists from the Ebola epicenter in Bunia, Ituri province, Julien Harneis, UN senior Ebola coordinator said the Ebola outbreak in the country is growing exponentially. In the last three months, 2,500 people have died and half of those in the last 20 days.

Since the outbreak was declared on 15 May, 5,290 people have been infected and 2,516 have died, according to latest health authority data published on Friday.

Years of armed conflict, insufficient medical resources and attacks on medical staff and medical facilities are further increasing the difficulty of epidemic prevention and control.

"We're only covered for the next weeks, and very soon funding will run out. So, we need to scale up, we need to have far greater investment, far greater support from the international community. And every delay in funding and implementation makes this epidemic more deadly, more difficult to stop and more expensive. So, we need that international support immediately," Harneis said.

UN calls on more int’l support as Ebola outbreak spreads exponentially in DR Congo

The Trump administration has initiated procedures to pay 725 million U.S. dollars toward U.S. arrears owed to the United Nations, according to a State Department notification to Congress on Thursday.

The payment is expected to be completed before President Trump travels to New York next month to attend the UN General Assembly and deliver an address.

However, the 725 million U.S. dollars represents less than 20 percent of the total amount the United States owes.

In May, the United Nations said U.S. arrears exceeded 4 billion U.S. dollars. The U.S. side maintains that the actual total is lower than that figure.

Under the UN Charter, a member state may lose its voting rights in the General Assembly if its arrears equal or exceed the total assessments due for the preceding two years.

The United States is the largest contributor to the UN budget. The Trump administration had previously refused to pay some mandatory assessments for the UN regular budget and peacekeeping budget, cut voluntary funding to multiple UN agencies, and withdrawn from several international organizations.

US to pay 725 million dollars in overdue UN arrears