U.S. Commits $32 Million for Ebola Response as USAID Cuts Left Congo Health System Weakened
Updated
Updated · ms.now · May 27
U.S. Commits $32 Million for Ebola Response as USAID Cuts Left Congo Health System Weakened
4 articles · Updated · ms.now · May 27
$32 million in U.S. aid has been committed for the Ebola outbreak in Congo and Uganda, alongside $50 million to fund the first 50 clinics and a surge of personnel and logistics support.
More than 1,000 suspected and confirmed cases and 223 suspected deaths have been recorded, and former USAID officials said the response was slowed after the agency’s closure stripped away field networks, logistics capacity and outbreak specialists.
Testing delays in Ituri exposed those gaps: samples were sent to Kinshasa with the wrong temperature and quantity after local labs lacked equipment for the Bundibugyo strain, while CDC staffing was limited and largely based far from the outbreak zone.
State Department officials said WHO notification delays and difficult conditions in M23-controlled eastern Congo hindered the response, arguing new country MOUs and retained CDC capacity left the U.S. better positioned than critics claim.
Aid groups and former officials counter that the broader system was already weakened by the 2025 pullback, with U.S. aid to Congo falling from $1.4 billion in 2024 to $146 million for 2026 and eastern Congo losing 70% of humanitarian support.
U.S. aid was cut by 70% in Congo. Can new international funds arrive fast enough to stop the Ebola outbreak?
With no vaccine for this Ebola strain, is the world defenseless against the next pandemic after recent global health cuts?
The 2026 Ebola Outbreak: How U.S. Withdrawal and Global Health Cuts Fueled the Third-Largest Epidemic in History
Overview
The 2026 Bundibugyo ebolavirus outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda is a rapidly growing crisis, made worse by a critical four-week delay between the first symptoms in a healthcare worker and official detection. This delay allowed the virus to spread widely before any containment could start, highlighting low clinical suspicion among local providers. The weakened health systems, reduced international support, and recent U.S. policy shifts have left affected countries struggling to respond. As a result, the outbreak has reached a large scale, exposing serious gaps in global health infrastructure and raising concerns about future epidemic preparedness.