‘Ebola takes the people children depend on’: UNICEF

The Ebola outbreak in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is robbing children of their loved ones – with some succumbing to the deadly disease themselves, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported on Tuesday.The update comes as neighbouring Kenya confirmed its first case and death from the disease, believed to have come from DRC. “Ebola takes the people children depend on and unravels their lives,” said Halimatou Amadou, UNICEF Chief of Communication in the DRC, speaking to journalists in Geneva. “The parents fall ill, a child may be exposed, the parent is taken for treatment or dies. At the very moment a child most needs someone, fear and stigma can keep relatives and neighbours away.” Nearly 2,000 children affectedMore than 1,900 boys and girls have either lost one or both parents, or their caregivers, since the outbreak was declared in May, or have been separated from them. Most of these children, 1,581, are in North Kivu province, the epicentre of the crisis. A further 322 are in neighbouring North Kivu province. “And these are the children we know about because these figures cover only the area where UNICEF works with social affairs teams in the affected province...