From:Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

Minister of State for International Development and Diaspora, Neale Richmond TD, has announced the donation of emergency relief items from Ireland to support the response to the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The relief items include medical isolation tents, water tanks, mattresses, blankets, mosquito nets, and building materials to install water and sanitation infrastructure.

The items arrived in the Bunia region of DRC this week and will be distributed locally through Christian Aid and Oxfam, both of whom have programmes in affected areas.

Announcing the relief items, Minister Richmond said:

The Ebola outbreak is an ongoing public health emergency. It is vital that the international community responds to reduce its devastating impact and the risk of it spreading further. This emergency aid will support our partners to deliver practical support to patients, medical professionals and the wider community in affected areas.

It is absolutely vital that this virus is contained and brought under control. These relief items from Ireland will support people on the front lines of this emergency to do just that.

The emergency relief items were transported to the Bunia region of DRC from UN Humanitarian Response Depots in Dubai and Accra, where Ireland has prepositioned supplies that can be deployed to humanitarian crisis zones around the world.

The items were transported with the support of the European Union’s humanitarian department, ECHO, and Dubai Humanitarian.

This contribution complements Ireland’s other support to the Ebola response through pre-positioned humanitarian funding and support to the World Health Organisation.