Your Excellencies President Ndayishimiye,
President Ramaphosa,
Vice President Alupo,
Prime Minister Suminwa Tuluka,
Chairperson Mahmoud Ali Youssouf,
Dr Jean Kaseya,
Excellencies, honourable Ministers, dear colleagues and friends,
I thank the Africa CDC for hosting this event, and for its partnership in the Ebola response through the joint, African-led incident management support team.
Thank you also to all those who have made concrete commitments today to support the Joint Continental Preparedness and Response Plan, especially the Government of DRC and Uganda.
Two weeks ago I traveled to DRC, and I visited the epicentre of the outbreak in the province of Ituri.
I saw resilience, I saw commitment and I saw hope.
Treatment capacity is expanding, and we are seeing recoveries.
But I also saw first-hand the challenges that the communities and our teams face.
Testing and laboratory capacity 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 in Bunia.
And blanket travel restrictions are disrupting supply chains and hindering response operations, without addressing the source of transmission.
As you may know, this month marks 50 years since the first documented Ebola outbreaks in Sudan and DRC, in 1976 – although the first documented outbreak of Bundibugyo virus was only 19 years ago, in 2007.
In that time, there have only ever been four cases of Ebola documented in travelers from Africa, excluding medical evacuations.
Blanket travel restrictions are an unnecessary overreaction that do more harm than good.
WHO recommends targeted public health measures, including exit screening at points of departure, which are much more effective.
As you know, we are fighting this outbreak without vaccines or therapeutics.
Clinical trials of promising medicines for treatment and prevention will start in the coming weeks. Vaccine trials will take longer.
We are also working to ensure access for the affected communities to medicines and vaccines should they be successful in trials.
Of course, medical countermeasures would be very useful.
But under the leadership of the government, we can defeat this outbreak without them, just as we have defeated 16 previous Ebola outbreaks in DRC.
The bigger question is what we will do to prevent the 18th Ebola outbreak, and the 19th.
That must include working with communities to address the root causes of Ebola outbreaks by improving food safety and preventing spillover, as part of a One Health approach.
At the same time, we must remember that for the people of Ituri, Ebola is just one threat among many.
During my visit, one health worker came up to me and asked why we came for Ebola, but not for the many other health threats they face.
He has a point.
Community mistrust is a major barrier in this outbreak because these communities feel – perhaps rightly – that the outside world only wants to protect itself from Ebola and doesn’t truly care about them.
We have a duty to end this outbreak. But our duty does not end there.
Even as we respond to this outbreak, we must ensure that we are strengthening the essential health services and systems that people rely on for their many other health needs.
That’s the best way to build trust, and to keep it.
If we protect these communities from Ebola, but not from malaria or unsafe childbirth, or measles or malnutrition, or from a conflict that is not of their making, we have not really helped.
Excellencies, as we conclude today’s meeting, I have heard seven main priorities:
First, the response must be African-led, with the affected countries in the driver’s seat, supported by partners based on the principle of one plan, one budget, one team.
Second, today’s Summit has endorsed the continued collaboration between WHO and Africa CDC, under the joint Incident Management Support Team and the Joint Continental Preparedness and Response Plan.
Third, even while we invest in fighting Ebola, we must invest in strengthening essential health systems and services, and in addressing the wider humanitarian emergency.
Fourth, we continue to call for countries that have imposed blanket travel restrictions to lift them – as I said earlier, because this is overreaction.
Fifth, we must continue building national and regional capacity to produce vaccines, therapeutics and other medical products.
Sixth, we ask the armed groups to agree to a ceasefire until the outbreak is over.
This Summit has called for the urgent establishment of humanitarian access corridors to ensure safe access for authorities and partners to North Kivu, South Kivu and other high-risk areas.
And seventh, even as we work to stop this outbreak, we must start work now to prevent the next one, by addressing the root causes.
This Summit has emphasized the need to move from emergency appeals to sustainable preparedness financing, anchored in domestic governments and the African private sector, and complemented by external partners.
None of this is the responsibility of DRC alone. We are all in this together.
In particular, strong cross-border cooperation between affected countries and their neighbours is especially important.
The keys to ending this outbreak are government leadership, community ownership, and strong partnership between WHO, Africa CDC and the many other actors on the ground.
Thank you all once again for your support. Together, we can stop this.
And to Your Excellency President Ndayishimiye and President Ramaphosa, we really appreciate your leadership.