New Humanitarian: How ‘Ebola business’ threatens aid operations in Congo
“Questionable practices in the Ebola response in the Democratic Republic of Congo, including payments to security forces, renting vehicles at inflated prices, and job kickback schemes, may have jeopardized humanitarian operations and put lives at risk. A months-long investigation by the New Humanitarian into the so-called ‘Ebola business’ found such practices, which are also reported in a recent draft operational review commissioned by a group of U.N. agencies and NGOs looking at corruption and fraud across the wider aid sector in the country. Together, the reporting TNH began in mid-2019 and the work carried out by the review’s authors from January into April 2020 show how an ‘Ebola business’ evolved around the aid effort in Congo, raising concern for future emergencies, including a new Ebola outbreak in a northwestern region…” (Freudenthal, 6/18).

STAT: Second deadliest Ebola outbreak on record is days from being declared over
“…The North Kivu-Ituri epidemic, named after the two provinces in eastern DRC where it has raged, is the second longest and second deadliest in history. If, as fervently hoped, Congolese authorities announce that Ebola has been vanquished there on Wednesday or Thursday, the outbreak will have lasted nearly 23 months. At least 3,463 people have been infected, and 2,280 of them having died. Those numbers could still rise: 490 so-called suspect cases are still being investigated to see if they should be added to the tally, according to the Congolese health ministry…” (Branswell, 6/22).