Emergency preparedness and response across Africa
The Emergency Preparedness and Response (EPR) Cluster of the WHO Regional Office for Africa continues to work with countries across the Region to prepare, prevent and control public health emergencies.
In November 2025, the WHO Regional Office for Africa responded to a total of 119 public health emergencies across the Region, consisting of 97 infectious diseases outbreaks and 22 humanitarian crises, representing an increase of six events, compared to responses in October. Fifteen of these were graded public health emergencies and 45 were ungraded.
Major responses included the Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Marburg virus disease (MVD) in Ethiopia, multicountry events such as mpox, cholera, diphtheria, dengue and Rift Valley fever and humanitarian crises (HC) in the Sahel, eastern DRC, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Cabo Delgado, and the impact of the Sudan conflict on neighbouring countries.
Ten new events were recorded in the month of November, ranging from cholera and Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF) in Namibia, to dengue in Ethiopia and Nigeria, mpox in Mali and South Africa, RVF in Uganda, skin lesions in Sierra Leone, MVD in Ethiopia and a landslide in Kenya.
The priority remains to build sustainable health security capacities so that countries can detect early, respond promptly and contain emergencies faster. Three events that closed in this period were measles in Niger, leishmaniasis in Kenya and EVD in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The responses to these outbreaks were coordinated across the three levels of the Organization, with the Regional Office ensuring that supply chains remained robust, and facilitating more than 30 shipments from both Nairobi and Dakar Hubs for timely delivery of critical items to countries for outbreak response.
Additionally, there were deployments of 10 technical officers to Mauritania for diphtheria and RVF outbreaks, Chad for cholera and the humanitarian crises, the Democratic Republic of the Congo for cholera, EVD and the eastern DRC humanitarian crisis.