African leaders rally support for $518M response plan to combat spread of Ebola

African leaders on Tuesday convened a high-level virtual summit to rally support for the continent’s $518 million response plan to curb the Ebola outbreak in East Africa.

Noting that the outbreak had 800 cases and 200 new deaths, the summit emphasized the importance of improving national and regional response plans, strengthening cross-border coordination, and increasing preparedness, surveillance, and containment measures.

“Delayed action has the potential to escalate a localized outbreak into a regional and global crisis. That is why our response must focus on breaking the transmission and stopping Ebola at its source,” South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said while announcing his country’s pledge to increase contributions to the cause from $5 million to $13.5 million.

Jean Kaseya, director general of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), said the outbreak must be stopped as soon as possible to avoid a worse scenario than what occurred in West Africa and eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo during previous continental outbreaks.

The summit, convened by African Union (AU) chairperson and Burundi President Evariste Ndayishimiye, was also attended by DR Congo President Felix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo and Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni, the leaders of two countries currently experiencing the outbreak.

It served as a forum for urgent political commitment, financial resources, and operational assistance to strengthen Africa’s collective response to the outbreak and reinforce continental health security.