Congo Ebola Funds: Africa CDC Says $700 Million Not Accounted For

More than $700 million in Congo Ebola funds sent by international donors has not been accounted for to Congolese authorities, Africa’s top public health agency said this week. Africa CDC Director General Jean Kaseya told reporters in Kinshasa on Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026, that donors disbursed about $962 million directly to aid groups and international organizations running the Ebola response, but national officials can trace only a fraction of it.

The Congo Ebola funds gap, by the numbers

• About $962 million was disbursed by donors to implementing partners, not to the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Africa CDC said.
• Only about 30% of those organizations attended a meeting at Congo’s National Institute of Public Health and shared their finances. They reported receiving roughly $220 million, of which about $120 million had been spent and around $100 million was still available, according to Africa CDC. Reuters put those figures at $228 million received and $127 million spent.
• That leaves more than $700 million unknown to national authorities.
• Announced pledges for the response have reached $2.9 billion, Africa CDC said in an Oct. 4 statement.

A reporting failure, not proven theft

Kaseya told Reuters on Thursday that it was too early to talk about embezzlement. He called the gap a major transparency and financial reporting problem that keeps the government from seeing what was raised, how it was used and what it achieved. In a follow-up statement, Africa CDC stressed that the $962 million was never paid to Congo’s government and said any reading suggesting the money went to the state contradicts what Kaseya said.

Congo’s health minister, Samuel-Roger Kamba, backed the call. He said aid groups must report their funding sources, goals and progress to his ministry. On Thursday, Oct. 15, he announced that organizations unable to show where their Ebola money went may no longer work in the field without official accreditation. Only 25 of 97 implementing organizations answered the government’s request for documents, Kamba told the Congolese Press Agency, as reported by Radio Okapi, leaving 72 barred from operating for now. Kaseya warned that groups that do not comply could be barred from Congo and blacklisted across Africa.

The outbreak behind the money

The dispute comes as the Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak, declared in May, keeps spreading. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention counts 9,235 cases and 4,444 deaths, CIDRAP reported. Health officials reported two cases in North Ubangi, which would make it the eighth affected province, though Reuters said Congo had not yet officially announced them. Ituri province has the most cases, and North Kivu has seen a recent rise. Save the Children said earlier this month that about seven children a day have died, 961 in all since the outbreak was detected.

There is no licensed vaccine or specific treatment for the Bundibugyo strain. Researchers in Uganda have begun a phase 1 trial of an Oxford-developed candidate vaccine and plan to enroll 110 volunteers by November.

The virus has crossed borders, too. Kenya confirmed its second and third cases on Oct. 14 and Oct. 16, both close relatives of its first patient, a man who traveled home from Congo and died on Oct. 5, the World Health Organization said. Both were already in quarantine when they fell ill, and Kenya’s health ministry said there is no evidence of community transmission. By Oct. 16, 127 of 130 listed contacts were in quarantine. The Boston Report covered Kenya’s first Ebola case and the contact tracing that followed.

Why trust in the response matters

Reuters noted that mistrust of health workers and agencies remains a key obstacle to containing Ebola in Congo, and that earlier responses there were marred by allegations of favoritism and corruption. Eastern Congo is also politically unsettled, as former President Joseph Kabila’s new front with M23 rebels in Goma shows. Health teams depend on communities to report symptoms, accept contact tracing and allow safe burials, and visible accounting for donor money is one way to keep that cooperation.

Africa CDC said it will strengthen its Financial Tracking Mechanism to pull funding data together, find gaps and reduce duplication, and it supports administrative measures under Congolese law against organizations that refuse to report.

Sources

• Africa CDC: Statement on Ebola response funding in the DRC (French)
• Africa CDC: Supporting transparency and accountability in Ebola response funding (Oct. 4)
• Reuters (via Yahoo News): Africa CDC says over $700 million in Ebola funds unaccounted for
• Radio Okapi: 72 organizations that did not justify Ebola funds barred (French)
• CIDRAP: 3rd person in Kenya tests positive as DR Congo outbreak spreads to 8th province
• WHO Africa: WHO supports Kenya’s Ebola response as third case is found