Kinshasa, May 30 (IANS) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO), is visiting Congo amid the Ebola outbreak in the nation.

“I had the opportunity to meet with Lieutenant-General Johnny Luboya Nkashama, the Governor of Ituri, which is currently the province in the Congo reporting the highest number of cases in the ongoing Ebola outbreak caused by the Bundibugyo virus,” Ghebreyesus wrote on X on Saturday.

“During our discussions, we agreed that a key priority for responding to the outbreak is to enhance the coordination among all health and humanitarian actors, ensuring their operations align with the government’s overall leadership in managing this response,” he added.

He arrived in Kinshasa on Thursday and noted that he had come to show affected communities that “they are not alone” and that the WHO was there to support the response.

He said that the Ebola outbreak in Congo was “very complex”, with conflict, insecurity, displacement, food shortages and community mistrust complicating efforts to contain the disease.

India on Friday expressed readiness to continue assisting affected countries and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in dealing with the health emergency.

Addressing a weekly media briefing in New Delhi, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said that the medical supplies sent to the Africa CDC were handed over by the Indian High Commissioner in Uganda, Upender Singh Rawat, to its office there.

“We have sent medical supplies to the Africa CDC. This was handed over by our High Commissioner in Uganda to the CDC office there. We look forward to further helping in whatever manner we can with the countries and with the Africa CDC in dealing with this public health emergency that has happened on the continent. We will keep you updated as and when we have more developments on that account. But we have sent the first tranche of medical supplies to the Africa CDC,” Jaiswal added.

–IANS

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