UN budget committee approves funding for Ebola response mission

The UN committee on administrative and budgetary issues on Tuesday adopted a resolution allocating funding of $49.9 million for the newly established UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER).

"The establishment of UNMEER is the first step in the global efforts to contain the outbreak, which must be further strengthened by a wide range of actions and measures at all levels, " General Assembly President Sam Kutesa told the group's second formal meeting here.

At the Fifth Committee's first meeting on Friday, Susana Malcorra, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's Chef de Cabinet, presented his preliminary funding proposal requesting 49.9 million dollars for the rest of the year.

Following the committee's endorsement of that amount, Kutesa said the committee is "sending a strong message on its ability to effectively and expeditiously deliver on critical and pressing global issues" and strongly encouraged it to build on the momentum to develop greater trust among the membership and deliver on expected time frames.

Established on Sept. 19, UNMEER teams have already been deployed to the Mission headquarters in Accra, Ghana, and to offices in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

More than 6,500 people are believed to have been infected, and more than 3,300 have died since the latest outbreak of the disease was confirmed in March, according to UN figures.

Aside from the UNMEER funding, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said it needs 988 million dollars to respond to the outbreak. So far, 257 million dollars have been raised.