7 January 2015
Former head of UN Ebola mission: UN has ‘heavy responsibility’
Former head of the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER), Anthony Banbury, pointed to significant progress in tackling the outbreak since he was appointed in September 2013, but stressed the ‘heavy responsibility’ on the UN.
Despite the progress, Mr. Banbury said several challenges remain, including the geographical dispersion of Ebola. There was also a need to change community behaviours and reduce resistance to the massive interventions attempted.
According to Mr. Banbury, setting the ambitious target [bringing cases down to zero] is an ‘obligation’ in order to bring the crisis to an end as quickly as possible. To achieve it, he said effective community engagement would be essential and underlined the need to maintain vigilance and commitment as the number of cases continues to drop.
Source: UN News Centre | Outgoing head of UN Ebola mission sums up progress in ‘big battle’ with outbreak