UN mission in DRC creates Ebola taskforce in response to outbreak

The United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has created a taskforce in response to a fresh Ebola outbreak in the African country, a UN spokesman told reporters here on Monday.

"The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported today that the government of the DRC has confirmed that Ebola has resurfaced in the country," UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said at the daily briefing.

Dujarric quoted Congolese Health Minister Felix Kabange Numbi as saying that the outbreak killed 13 people since July in a remote village in Boende of Equateur Province, more than 1,200 km from the capital Kinshasa, but the strain of this outbreak was different from the one that's been ravaging West Africa.

"The Congolese authorities, the World Health Organization (WHO) and NGOs are mobilizing against the disease," said Dujarric.

"The United Nations Stabilization Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO) has created an Ebola taskforce, and is tracking and screening its staff traveling to and from the affected countries in West Africa, " he added.

Ebola was first discovered in the DRC in 1976 and this is the seventh time the disease has broken out, said the UN spokesperson. The latest bout was in 2012 when some 36 people died in Province Orientale.

According to the latest WHO update, so far there have been 2, 615 cases and 1,427 deaths reported in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria. Dr. David Nabarro, the United Nations System Coordinator for Ebola, is now in Guinea, after visiting Liberia and Sierra Leone.