Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, 18 November 2019- The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC, has welcomed the African Union’s plans for hosting the AfricaAgainstEbola Partners’ Forum on December 2 at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa. 

 

At a press conference in Kinshasa on 14th November, which followed a high level visit to the country by the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, AfricaCDC, Dr Eteni Longondo, the DRC’s Minister of Health, recognised that the partners forum would provide the DRC with financial support to continue to fight Ebola, which “is killing Congolese people.” The minister also pledged continued collaboration with the African Union.

 

At the same event, the Director of the AfricaCDC, Dr John Nkengasong, announced that the Chairperson of the AU Commission H.E Mr Moussa Faki Mahamat will preside over the event. He congratulated the government of the DRC for its “extraordinary leadership” in controlling the current Ebola outbreak. He provided more details about the forum, it would mobilise the private sector and the traditional partners of the continent, to raise resources that will enable to AU to fight the 10th outbreak of the Ebola virus disease. 

 

Dr John Nkengasong observed that while the outbreak is now in a good epidemiological pathway as the number of cases is decreasing, there is still a lot of work to be done to bring it completely under control. After that, he said there would be need to strength public health systems in order to enable the AU to respond quickly and effectively to any future outbreaks.

 

The meeting comprised the government of the DRC, the country’s Institut National pour la Recherche Biomedicale, INRB, and a high level task team from the African Union, led by Dr Nkengasong. Professor Jean Jacques Muyembe, the Director of the INRB attended. He is a leading African and global health expert, who is credited for co-discovering the Ebola virus and for leading the research team that discovered the most effective treatment for Ebola. 

 

For more information:

Wynne Musabayana | Head of Communication | Directorate of Information and Communication | African Union Commission | Tel: (251) 11 551 77 00 | Fax: (251) 11 551 78 44 | E-mail: DIC@africa-union.org | Web: www.au.int|Addis Ababa | Ethiopia

 

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