KINSHASA — Hundreds of millions of dollars designated for Ebola response in the Democratic Republic of Congo are not reaching their intended recipients, medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières reported. The organization said the Ebola outbreak remains out of control as frontline workers go unpaid, lack proper training and face shortages of essential supplies.
Since the outbreak began in May, more than 5,400 people have died and 11,000 have been infected with Ebola in DR Congo, making it the second-deadliest outbreak of the disease ever recorded. MSF also cited instances where ambulances tasked with responding to the crisis had run out of fuel.
The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention reported last month that 700 million dollars out of 962 million dollars disbursed to organizations implementing the Ebola response was unaccounted for. Africa CDC chief Jean Kaseya characterized the issue as a "major transparency and financial reporting failure," though he said it was too early to describe it as embezzlement.
Congolese Health Minister Samuel-Roger Kamba said aid agencies are required to provide details of their work for ministry oversight. Only 22 percent of aid agencies had complied with this requirement, Kamba said.
MSF's report highlighted the severe impact on responders. "Despite the vast amounts of money provided for the response, many frontline responders are left trying to contain the outbreak with empty hands and empty pockets," the charity said. MSF also noted the existence of "Ebola monitoring surveillance teams that exist on paper but are nowhere to be seen on the ground."
Javid Abdelmoneim, MSF president, said the situation was unacceptable. "Our teams are often left speechless by the dysfunctions they witness in many areas. Six months into the response, this situation is simply unacceptable," he said.
Contact tracing, a critical method for preventing Ebola's spread by isolating those exposed to infected individuals, remains problematic. MSF reported that surveillance efforts are deeply flawed, despite official resource allocations. This failure contributes to two-thirds of Ebola deaths occurring within communities rather than in treatment centers.
British epidemiologist Neil Ferguson estimates that more than half of all Ebola cases in the current outbreak are going undetected. Given the current rate of detection and containment failures, the outbreak is likely to persist for another year, Ferguson said.
