Ebola has spread to an eighth province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and affected families are finding it harder to get food while they follow treatment and isolation guidance, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said on 23 October. The agency is delivering food, building Ebola treatment centres and running the logistics, telecommunications and air services that health partners rely on.
Across the Ebola-affected areas nearly 3.5 million people face crisis-level hunger or worse (IPC Phase 3 or above), and 97% of those directly affected by the outbreak still need food assistance, WFP says. The disease disrupts markets, livelihoods and movement, and conflict and displacement have left families little capacity to absorb another shock. "Families should not have to choose between following health guidance and finding food," the agency said; food assistance means patients and relatives do not have to leave treatment or isolation to look for it.
WFP has delivered more than 744,000 hot meals in 59 treatment and isolation facilities and distributed more than 3,000 tonnes of food to patients' families. Its six-month plan includes dry rations for more than half a million relatives of patients and suspected cases. Its engineers handed over the first Ebola treatment centre in Musienene in under two months from request to operation; another is being built in Bunia, and four more, including one in Goma, are planned.
The WFP-run UN Humanitarian Air Service has flown 1,255 flights carrying 10,272 responders and 483 tonnes of cargo since the response began. The logistics cluster the agency leads has stored 3,417 tonnes of supplies for 43 organisations and delivered 2,653 tonnes of relief items, including medicines and protective equipment, by air and road. Insecurity, poor roads and heavy rain around Mahagi, Bunia and Isiro have delayed operations.
WFP says it needs $214 million over the next six months for food, logistics and air operations in eastern DRC, including $78.6 million for hot meals and dry rations for people directly affected by Ebola and their families, and warns that assistance risks interruption without timely funding.
Source: WFP
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