WHO Director-General's remarks at the virtual roundtable on the Ebola outbreak – 12 June 2026

Commissioner Lahbib,

Dr Jean Kaseya,

Honourable Ministers, dear colleagues and friends,

I thank the European Union and the Africa CDC for co-hosting this meeting with WHO.

I would like to thank Commissioner Lahbib especially for your commitment to being on the ground in Ituri and seeing the situation first-hand. Thank you so much for your leadership.

The outbreak is moving quickly, and it had a significant head start. We are still trying to catch up.

Testing capacity and contact tracing are still not at the level we need to interrupt transmission.

Insecurity, displacement and population movement complicate these efforts - as does significant mistrust in local communities, which I observed while I was there in Bunia.

However, there are grounds for confidence.

Treatment capacity is expanding, and we are seeing recoveries.

Thirty-two people have now recovered in DRC, and five in Uganda.

WHO has 110 people on the ground, with more on the way, supporting every pillar of the response.

We are sending US$ 4.4 million worth of supplies, with air cargo support provided by the European Union, UAE, MONUSCO and WFP.

By contrast, the situation in Uganda appears to be stable.

Contact tracing and testing are both at very high levels.

The keys to ending this outbreak are government leadership, community ownership, and strong partnership between WHO, Africa CDC and the many other actors.

In the past two weeks I have travelled to both DRC and Uganda, where I have met with Presidents Tshisekedi and Museveni, and I very much appreciate their leadership.

Together with Africa CDC, we are operating a joint, African-led incident management support team.

And late last week, we launched a joint continental Preparedness and Response Plan to bring coherence and scale to the effort.

This is a shared plan, anchored in country leadership and based on the principle of one plan, one budget, one team.

It is time-bound, covering the next six months, and costed at US$ 518 million, reflecting the scale of the response required.

I would like to use this opportunity to thank the European Union not only for its financial commitment, but also for its political leadership.

As you know, the response is operating without licensed vaccines or therapeutics.

In terms of clinical trials, there are two parallel priorities.

First, clinical trials of promising medicines for treatment and prevention will start in the coming weeks. Vaccine trials will take longer.

Second, we are working to ensure access for the affected communities to medicines and vaccines should they be successful in trials.

Vaccines and therapeutics would of course be very useful.

But we can stop this outbreak without them. We know what works.

We also know what doesn't work.

As the Commissioner said, blanket travel restrictions disrupt supply chains and hinder response operations, without addressing the source of transmission.

Targeted public health measures, including exit screening at points of departure, are more effective.

Beyond the immediate response, there is a broader issue.

One health worker in DRC asked me why we came for Ebola, but not the many other health threats his community faces: malaria, pneumonia, diarrheal disease, malnutrition, hunger and armed conflict.

Since January, almost 500 civilians have been killed in conflict alone.

He has a point. We must stop this outbreak, and we will.

But we cannot allow the response to take resources away from the essential health services that people rely on.

At the same time, we cannot ignore the humanitarian context in which this outbreak is happening.

Dear colleagues and friends, I leave you with six asks:

First, we ask all partners to work together under the joint Continental Preparedness and Response Plan, and to fully fund that plan.

Second, we ask funders and manufacturers to ensure adequate supply of study medicines for the trials, and for wider access if the drugs are shown to be effective.

Third, we ask countries that have imposed blanket travel restrictions to lift them.

Fourth, we ask all partners to ensure the Ebola response is not drawing resources away from essential health services and systems. Actually, we should put more in essential health services.

Fifth, we ask the armed groups to agree to a ceasefire until the outbreak is over.

And sixth, even as we work to stop this outbreak, we must start work now to prevent the next one.

That includes strengthening the health systems on which people rely.

But it also means working with communities to address the root cause by improving food safety and prevent spillover, as part of a One Health approach.

Thank you all once again for your support, especially to our partner the European Union.

Thank you my sister for your leadership, and my brother Jean Kaseya.

Together, we can stop this.