UNITED NATIONS, May 22 (Xinhua) -- UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher announced on Friday that he is allocating up to 60 million U.S. dollars from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund to accelerate the response to the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the wider region.
"We need to get ahead of this Ebola outbreak," Fletcher said in a statement.
While the humanitarian community is fully mobilized, he said, "the epidemiological context is challenging: there are not yet licensed vaccines or treatments for the Bundibugyo strain."
Noting that these are some of the most difficult operating environments in the world for the life-saving work, with conflict and high population movement, Fletcher said the United Nations is working to secure safe and sustained access for frontline responders, including to areas controlled by armed groups.
"It is essential that there is no obstruction of our response. We must have access to all routes -- air, land and water -- across the affected areas," he said.
The UN relief chief underscored that containment depends on fast, coordinated action at the community level, stressing the importance of strong communication with governments, and effective early warning and detection systems.
Fletcher said he is in close contact with UN humanitarian coordinators and the teams in the DRC, Uganda and South Sudan, and more staff from key UN agencies and partners are being deployed this weekend to reinforce the effort. ■
