Ebola: Africa CDC unable to trace $700 million of the $962 million response in the DRC

Of the $962 million that international donors claim to have committed to fighting the Ebola epidemic in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, more than $700 million remains "unknown to national authorities." This finding was made public on October 14, 2026, in Kinshasa by the Director-General of Africa CDC, Dr. Jean Kaseya, and confirmed the following day by a statement from the African Union health agency published in Addis Ababa.

According to this statement, the $962 million was not paid to the Congolese government, but directly to international organizations and NGOs tasked with the response. A verification exercise conducted with the National Institute of Public Health (INSP) only managed to trace approximately $220 million: $120 million already spent and $100 million still available. Africa CDC specifies that only 30% of the organizations summoned appeared to share their financial information.

"It is unacceptable"

Africa CDC describes the situation as a "major deficit in transparency and financial communication" and deems it "unacceptable that organizations receive hundreds of millions of dollars" without being accountable to the authorities tasked with coordinating the response. "We are not going to let this go," Jean Kaseya told the press, according to Radio Okapi. "These funds exist, and we are going to continue this fight."

The agency announced that it will work with Kinshasa to reconstruct, organization by organization, the amounts received, the expenses incurred, the activities funded, and the results obtained. It also stated that it is prepared to support administrative measures against structures that refuse to submit to this exercise: suspension or withdrawal of their accreditation, or even reporting their names to the authorities of other African countries.

A response funded over the head of the State

The issue goes beyond simple accounting. It highlights a mechanism that has become common on the continent: hundreds of millions of dollars in health funding circulate through parallel channels, outside the budget and outside the control of the State supposed to lead the response. Africa CDC does not directly blame the donors, whom it describes as having disbursed the funds to their implementing partners; it targets the beneficiary organizations, which, according to the agency, have not responded to repeated requests from Congolese authorities and the African agency.

Meanwhile, the epidemic continues to strike the east of the country. The standoff initiated by Africa CDC therefore centers on a simple question: who decides, and who is held accountable, when money for the health of the Congolese people does not pass through the Congo. The next announced step is the publication of a reconciled statement of funding, organization by organization.