‘We’re sitting on a volcano’ warns EU Commissioner after visit to Ebola-hit DRC

Hadja Lahbib tours a treatment centre for Ebola set up by the Alliance for International Medical Action in Rwampara outside Bunia, Ituri province, Democratic Republic of Congo, 7 June. REUTERS - Gradel Muyisa Mumbere

As a deadly outbreak of Ebola continues to spread across the Democratic Republic of Congo and the wider Great Lakes region, the European Union has pledged €170m towards the health and humanitarian response. Hadja Lahbib, the European Commissioner for International Partnerships, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response, spoke to RFI on her return from Bunia in eastern DRC, the centre of the outbreak.

Ebola is a highly infectious and often deadly viral disease spread through contact with the bodily fluids of infected people. The latest outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) involves the rare Bundibugyo strain, first identified in Uganda in 2007, for which there is currently no approved vaccine.