The outbreak of Ebola currently hitting the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is being fueled by armed conflict — but also, and perhaps above all, by the global decline in humanitarian aid.
Reforming humanitarian aid supply chains will help every aid euro go ‘further and faster’, says the EU. But budgets are only likely to keep falling.
THIS WEEK: Magyar heads to Brussels to unlock Hungary’s frozen EU recovery money by 31 August Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar is expected in Brussels to negotiate the release of €10.4bn in frozen EU recovery funds. In Cyprus, foreign affairs ministers meet informally to discuss Iran and Russia. A new strategy on humanitarian aid will be unveiled by the EU Commission on Wednesday.
EU leaders announced more than €800m in new aid pledges to help the victims of Sudan’s three year civil war, at a summit on Wednesday, but there is still no end to the war in sight.
On 10 March 2025, the US announced that 83 percent of USAID’s programs would be cancelled, involving over 5,000 contracts. The UK, Germany, France, Belgium and others quickly and sharply cut their aid budgets too. One year on, what are the effects?
The EU’s crisis commissioner Hadja Lahbib has made a three-day visit to eastern DR Congo and Burundi this week, to see for herself the scale of the refugee crisis.
