EU Supports African Union to Fight Ebola.
Photo: UNDP/S.Marijnissen
Commercial bike riders aim to reach 150,000 to 200,000
people through face-to-face dialogue and communication on Ebola
prevention in Freetown.
European Commissioner for Development, Andris Piebalgs, said: "We welcome the AU new mission and will fully support its work. The EU stands side by side with our African partners - we all need to cooperate closely in fighting this deadly disease. Today's funding is part of our contribution to a strong, coordinated international response."
Kristalina Georgieva, EU Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response, said: "The crisis continues to deteriorate, with Ebola cases surging even in places where it was brought under control. We must join forces in the fight against this deadly epidemic. Europe's humanitarian assistance is reaching the affected areas as we speak. The needs, however, are constantly growing."
ASEOWA is planned to last six months, with headquarters in Liberia and a minimum of 100 staff. It will provide advice to the Ebola coordination structures in the affected countries and engage in joint operations with them.
It will also provide medical support in their on-going responses to the Ebola outbreak and assist local authorities and the international community in consolidating the control over the virus' epidemic. It will also support the establishing of institutions and conducive conditions for the control and eradication of Ebola, as well as liaise with humanitarian actors and facilitate, where possible, humanitarian assistance to isolated and quarantined centers. Today's announcement was made in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) at an AU Partner Group's meeting on Ebola.
Background
€2 million of today's funding come from EU support for fighting Ebola that has been announced by Commissioner Piebalgs last Friday during his official visit to Benin (see IP/14/974); the remaining €3 million will be provided through the so-called African Union Support Programme, an existing EU funding mechanism that provides the technical capacity to the AU.
The European Commission has scaled up its response to the epidemic since March 2014 and has pledged to total some €147 million until now to help the countries affected by the Ebola virus (Guinea, SierraLeone, Liberia, and Nigeria). Humanitarian experts have been deployed in the region, monitoring the situation and liaising with partner organizations and local authorities.
Several European specialist teams of the European Mobile Laboratory project for dangerous infectious diseases have been dispatched to Guinea, Nigeria and Liberia, with mobile laboratories to support with viral hemorrhagic fever diagnostics, rapid analyses of samples and confirmation of cases.
The European Commission is also working closely with the EU Member States within the Health Security Committee to keep them informed about the latest developments and secure the synchronization of measures. The Health Security Committee has produced a travel advice leaflet, available in all EU language
allafrica.
