United Nations, Jul 27 (UNI) With Ebola accelerating in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the UN World Food Programme (WFP) announced that it plans to scale up and double food assistance to people affected by the disease.
One-year after the beginning of the complex outbreak in the volatile eastern part of the DRC – and ten days since the “alarming confirmation of a first case in Goma, the region’s biggest city, with some two million people” – WFP’s Spokesperson Herve Verhoosel said that the UN agency is “stepping up preparations for a potential further escalation of the epidemic”.
Over the next six months, WFP will nearly double its food assistance and nutritional support to 440,000 Ebola-affected people in DR Congo, Mr Verhoosel announced, adding that this would include “primarily contacts of victims and their families, as well as confirmed and suspected cases”.