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STORY: UN / DRC EBOLA PRESSER
TRT: 05:34
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 29 JULY 2026, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, United Nations Headquarters (as seen from Lond Island City)
29 JULY 2026, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, press briefing room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Julien Harneis, UN Senior Ebola Coordinator:
“In the last 24 hours, 50 people have died of Ebola in Congo. And the number of cases is growing exponentially, doubling every 20 days. This is far faster than the growth in our response. And so the gap between the epidemic and our response is widening.”
4. Wide shot, press briefing room
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Julien Harneis, UN Senior Ebola Coordinator:
“So, in support of the government, I'm calling that we step up, across the response, the United Nations, non-governmental organizations, member states. We need to massively step up our response, be it in terms of supplies, specialized supplies like personal protective equipment, staff, specialized medical staff, and logistics as well. And we call upon member states to keep the borders open so that our staff can travel into Congo to respond, so that we can bring in supplies quickly and freely. And then when colleagues come out, they're able to return home.”
6. Wide shot, press briefing room
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Julien Harneis, UN Senior Ebola Coordinator:
“The epidemic is worsening an already difficult humanitarian situation in eastern DRC. We see a worsening of the food security situation. The availability of medical services is being degraded by the epidemic, and across the board, the challenges are greater.”
8. Wide shot, press briefing room
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Carl Skau, Acting Executive Director, UN World Food Programme (WFP):
“My number one message is that this situation requires much, much more attention. And so, I welcome this opportunity to speak to all of you. This is the fastest growing Ebola crisis ever — Ebola outbreak, ever. To make a comparison, in the past two months, 1,000 people have died. That took eight months for 1,000 people to die in West Africa. So that means that there is a fourfold increase in terms of the number of deaths in this short period of time. And I think that itself requires world attention.”
10. Wide shot, press briefing room
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Carl Skau, Acting Executive Director, UN World Food Programme (WFP):
“You may think that it's just about treating the identified patients, but now this requires, from all the experience, we have a broader set of tools, and that includes food. We cannot isolate patients unless we provide them also food. We cannot have health workers working around the clock in these dangerous environments unless they're also being fed. And, frankly, we also have whole communities who have been closed off and that we expect to remain in their homes, and they also need to be fed.”
12. Wide shot, press briefing room
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Carl Skau, Acting Executive Director, UN World Food Programme (WFP):
“WFP has served some 160,000 hot meals so far, and we continue to deliver on that. We have delivered food parcels to some 20,000 affected families who have been closed off. And so I think that's an important message here, that food is essential in this response. You cannot force people to choose between hunger and health.”
14. Wide shot, press briefing room
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Carl Skau, Acting Executive Director, UN World Food Programme (WFP):
“Some 10 million people — I mean, 10 million people, that's the population of Sweden, the country I come from — are acutely food insecure in eastern DRC. And 3 million of those are in IPC Phase 4, as you know, emergency level of food insecurity. That is one step away from famine. That means they go to bed every night hungry. They wake up hungry every morning.”
16. Wide shot, press briefing room
17. SOUNDBITE (English) Carl Skau, Acting Executive Director, UN World Food Programme (WFP):
“I think it's important also to say that this place lacks any kind of basic health care. I heard today that some thousand health care centers have been closed down in the past couple of years because of lack of funding. And that's in a situation where some 400,000 children are malnourished. And of course, cholera has also been spreading over the past few months. And then on top of that, of course, if I add a fourth layer, it's now this Ebola crisis, the fastest growing Ebola outbreak ever on record.”
18. Wide shot, press briefing room
19. SOUNDBITE (English) Julien Harneis, UN Senior Ebola Coordinator:
“About 60 per cent of the deaths recorded are occurring in the community. And that is worrying, because when you have a death in the community, that means that the person's viral load is the highest at the moment, just after death. So that means that you've had people in the community who have been cared for by the daughter or the wife or the mother, and as a result, many of the persons most affected are young women. And so you get the transmission within the community. Many children under five are dying because of Ebola.”
20. Wide shot, press briefing room
“In the last 24 hours, 50 people have died of Ebola in Congo,” Julien Harneis, UN Senior Ebola Coordinator said.
Brifing reporters in New York today (29 Jul) virtually from Bunia in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, alongside Carl Skau, Acting Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP), Harneis said the number of cases is growing exponentially, doubling every 20 days, and that this growth is far faster than the growth in the response, widening the gap between the two.
“So, in support of the government, I'm calling that we step up, across the response, the United Nations, non-governmental organizations, member states,” Harneis told reporters.
“We need to massively step up our response, be it in terms of supplies, specialized supplies like personal protective equipment, staff, specialized medical staff, and logistics as well.”
He called on member states to keep borders open so that staff can travel into Congo to respond and so that supplies can move in quickly and freely, and so that colleagues can return home when they come out.
Harneis said the epidemic is worsening an already difficult humanitarian situation in eastern DRC, with a deteriorating food security situation and medical services degraded by the outbreak.
Skau told the briefing the situation requires much greater attention, calling it the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak ever recorded. He said 1,000 people have died in the past two months, compared with eight months for 1,000 deaths during the West Africa outbreak - a fourfold increase in the pace of deaths.
“You may think that it's just about treating the identified patients, but now this requires, from all the experience, we have a broader set of tools, and that includes food,” Skau said. He said patients cannot be isolated without also being provided food, health workers cannot work around the clock in dangerous environments unless they are fed, and entire communities under lockdown also need to be fed.
Skau said WFP has served some 160,000 hot meals so far and delivered food parcels to some 20,000 affected families who have been closed off. “You cannot force people to choose between hunger and health,” he said.
He said some 10 million people - comparable to the population of Sweden, his home country - are acutely food insecure in eastern DRC, with 3 million of those in IPC Phase 4 emergency levels of food insecurity, one step from famine.
Skau said the region lacks basic health care, with about a thousand health care centers closed in the past couple of years due to funding shortfalls, and some 400,000 children malnourished. He said cholera has also been spreading in recent months, on top of the Ebola outbreak.
Harneis said about 60 per cent of recorded deaths are occurring in the community, which he said is concerning because viral load is highest just after death. He said many of those caring for the dead in the community - daughters, wives, mothers - are young women, driving transmission within communities, and that many children under five are dying of Ebola.
