UN releases $1.5mn to help DR Congo fight Ebola

The United Nations on Wednesday allocated $1.5 million (1.1 million euros) to help the Democratic Republic of Congo fight Ebola, just days after the country confirmed its first cases this year.

The UN mission in the central African country said that sum could double in the near future, with the money being released from a fund set aside to meet "humanitarian needs" around the world.

Last week the DR Congo said 13 people had died with symptoms of haemorrhagic fever and performed tests on dozens of others who had come into contact with them.

Kinshasa confirmed two Ebola cases on Sunday, but claimed they were unrelated to the epidemic currently ravaging west Africa.

The confirmation marked the seventh outbreak of Ebola in DR Congo, where the virus was first identified in 1976.

Health Minister Felix Kabange Numbi said the outbreak was "contained" in the area near Jera, more than 1,200 kilometres (750 miles) northeast of the Congolese capital.

The World Health Organization on Friday raised its death toll for the Ebola epidemic sweeping Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria to 1,427.

© 2014 AFP