RELATIONSHIP BREAKDOWN

Uganda: Ebola response criticism from UK and US provokes clash with government

By Musinguzi Blanshe

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Posted on November 18, 2022 12:45

Photo taken October 27, 2022, Ebola doctors inside an isolation center together with suspected patients in Mubende, Uganda. (Photo by BADRU KATUMBA / AFP)

In an unprecedented move, furious Uganda government officials last week summoned donors – who have refused to give them money directly – to account for funds they have invested in the country’s ebola response. The donor community has mobilised about $40m with more than $30m coming from the US government. It comes as Ebola cases have spread to the east of Kampala, in Jinja, the first case recorded in the region.

Much of the funding has been channelled through agencies like the World Health Organisation (WHO), United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (Unicef) World Food Programme (WFP) as well as other international NGOs.

During last Thursday’s meeting, whose proceedings have been accessed by The Africa Report, donors as well as their implementing partners had to make presentations about how money had been allocated and how it was being spent. The tough-talking minister of health Jane Ruth Aceng said:

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