1. The Ebola virus disease (EVD), which recently broke out in West Africa, is rapidly spreading in the region, leaving an increasing number of people killed and many others infected and raising the fear of the international community. In order to help address the situation, the government of the Republic of Korea has decided to provide an additional 500,000 US dollars in humanitarian assistance through such international organizations as the World Health Organization (WHO).

* In the initial stages of the EVD outbreak, the ROK contributed a total of 100,000 US dollars to Guinea and Sierra Leone through the WHO.

2. In response to the ongoing spread of the Ebola virus, the international community, including the WHO, is announcing plans to offer additional aid to help overcome the serious humanitarian crisis attributable to the spread of the Ebola virus that has a fatality rate of up to 90%.

3. The ROK government made the aforementioned decision on humanitarian assistance in consideration of a wide range of factors, including the grave risk of further spread of the Ebola virus, humanitarian assistance efforts of the international community to prevent the worldwide spread of the virus, and relevant developments. Despite its limited budget earmarked for humanitarian assistance, the ROK government will continue to increase humanitarian assistance, thereby responding proactively to humanitarian crises of the international community. 


                               Spokesperson and Deputy Minister for Public Relations of MOFA

* unofficial translation