The EU has announced €16.5 million in additional support to help contain the Ebola outbreak after crisis management commissioner Hadja Lahbib visited responders in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and held talks with African public health bodies.
The package includes €6.5 million to strengthen the Africa Pathogen Genomics Initiative — a programme that uses genetic sequencing to track disease outbreaks — along with €5 million for the World Health Organization to support surveillance and supplies such as personal protective equipment, the European Commission informed on Tuesday.
It also includes an in-kind contribution of testing equipment worth €5 million, including rapid diagnostic devices and laboratory test kits, which the Commission said would be deployed quickly where needed.
The additional support is subject to approval by the budgetary authority.
Lahbib met health workers and humanitarian partners in Bunia, in eastern DRC, working on Ebola treatment, infection prevention and control, community engagement and logistics.
She also held meetings in Addis Ababa with the African Union and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention — a public health agency that supports disease control efforts across the continent — to strengthen coordination across borders.
Earlier funding and deliveries
The European Commission allocated €15 million in emergency humanitarian assistance for the Ebola response in the DRC and Uganda in May, it said.
More than €115 million in total has been allocated for emergency humanitarian support in the Great Lakes Region and Uganda in 2026.
An EU Humanitarian Air Bridge operation, working with UNICEF, has delivered nearly 100 tonnes of supplies to eastern DRC — including medicines, protective equipment, infection-control materials and tents — and the EU is organising five more flights to the country.
“Europe will continue to stand with Africa CDC, with WHO, and with the communities on the front line of this outbreak,” Lahbib said.
