UN announces Ebola mission, adopts resolution to fight outbreak
UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response, or UNMEER, established at Security Council meeting in New York as Secretary-General and WHO stress the threat to whole world from the deadly virus
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday announced a new mission to fight the spread of Ebola in West Africa as the Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution calling on the removal of travel bans on nations most impacted by the public health crisis.
“The suffering and spillover effects in the region and beyond demand the attention of the entire world,” Ban told Security Council members in the rare emergency session called to address the growing international health threat. “Ebola matters to us all.”
Ban explained the “unprecedented situation” required “unprecedented steps” necessitating the establishment of the new UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response, or UNMEER. He aims to have the mission’s advance team on the ground before the end of the month.
The international mission would focus on ending the spread of the virus, treating the infected, providing services, preserving stability and preventing more outbreaks.
Margaret Chan, the World Health Organisation’s director general, told council members that more than 5,500 have so far been infected and that well over 2,500 have died to date, but she stressed that the spread could be contained with a coordinated international response.
In a highly unusual move by the powerful council, which has only taken up a public health issue for the second time, US Ambassador Samantha Power pointed out that some 130 nations co-sponsored the resolution – the most ever – during the emergency session she called in her role as president of the month.