UN congratulates frontline Ebola response workers battling virus in West Africa
The United Nations today congratulated the front line workers in the field battling Ebola on their well-deserved recognition as Time “Person of the Year,” while countries affected by the outbreak and their partners met to…
UN meeting urges critical improvements to health systems of Ebola-affected countries
The international community must help Ebola-affected countries reboot their health systems so that they emerge from the current crisis more resilient and more focused on prevention efforts than ever before, a high-level…
Ebola: UN envoy calls for “big surge” in efforts to reduce transmission rates in Sierra Leone
Amid a spike in Ebola transmission rates in Sierra Leone, the United Nations envoy coordinating the massive global crisis response has travelled to the West African nation to help implement a surge in efforts to contain the…
Security Council extends mandate of UN Liberia mission
Recognizing that grappling with the Ebola outbreak has slowed the Liberian Government’s efforts to advance certain governance and national reforms, the Security Council today extended the United Nations mission in the country…
Ebola: UN forum urges debt relief for hard-hit countries, as search for faster diagnostics gets underway
The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) today recommended that creditors should seriously consider debt cancellation for the countries worst-hit by the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, and also projected that…
Ebola: UN says health workers in Sierra Leone to receive hazard pay using mobile money
Response workers battling the Ebola outbreak in West Africa will receive “hazard pay” for the first time in Sierra Leone using mobile money because “unless there is a certain element of incentives, or danger pay, it’s very…
Secretary-General holds year-end press conference at UN Headquarters
With the world gripped by myriad crises – from West Africa's Ebola outbreak and the dire threats posed by ISIL and other terrorist groups, to ongoing the conflicts in Syria and South Sudan –Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is…
Ebola: UN Secretary-General will visit West Africa to ‘show solidarity with those affected’
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced he will leave today for the countries hardest hit by the Ebola outbreak “to show my solidarity with those affected and urge even greater global action” to fight the epidemic, which two…
Ebola: ‘Regrettable loss’ caused by warehouse fire in Guinea
A fire engulfed a United Nations warehouse in Guinea today that contained medicines and laboratory materials used for the fight against Ebola, causing no casualties but “a regrettable loss” in supplies, which the UN mission…
Ban visits Ebola-hit West Africa, declares zero cases “must be everyone’s goal”
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today that there is reason to be “cautiously optimistic” about defeating the Ebola crisis in West Africa, as he made a series of visits to countries most-affected by the…
UN, Sierra Leone launch surge response to tackle Ebola transmission
Freetown, 17 December 2014 – Today, the United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER) joined forces with the Government of Sierra Leone and other partners to launch Operation Western Area Surge (WAS). Operation…
Mobile money marks significant step forward in Sierra Leone Ebola response
For the first time in Sierra Leone, hazard payments to Ebola Response Workers (ERWs) will be made using mobile money. Sudipto Mukerjee, Country Director for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Sierra Leone…