The European Union has allocated €2.3 million in emergency humanitarian funding to support efforts to contain cholera outbreaks in Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and the Central African Republic.
The European Commission announced the funding in a statement signed by Modestus Chukwulaka, Press and Information Officer of the EU Delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS.
The commission said the funding would enable humanitarian partners to respond rapidly to the outbreak, which has recorded more than 61,000 cases across the African region in the first five months of 2026, according to the World Health Organization.
Of the total funding, Nigeria will receive €1.5 million to expand intervention teams, provide essential supplies such as cholera kits, and strengthen water, sanitation and hygiene interventions.
The funds will also support the treatment of public and household water sources, intensify epidemiological surveillance in hard-to-reach areas, and improve case management, risk communication and community sensitisation.
Cameroon will receive €100,000 to support outbreak containment and case management. The funding will provide additional personnel for humanitarian partners, essential medicines, cholera treatment units and oral rehydration points in the worst-affected communities.
The Central African Republic will receive €500,000 to scale up case management and vaccination, alongside water, sanitation and hygiene interventions. The funding will also strengthen risk communication, community engagement, surveillance and case detection, as well as support safe and dignified burials.
In Chad, €200,000 will be used to help break the chain of cholera transmission by improving access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene, while strengthening community-based surveillance and case management.
The EU Commissioner for Preparedness and Crisis Management, Hadja Lahbib, said cholera remained preventable and treatable but continued to pose a serious threat where access to safe water and healthcare was limited.
“Cholera is preventable and treatable. Yet it still threatens lives when people lack something as basic as safe water and healthcare,” Lahbib said.
She added that despite growing humanitarian needs and shrinking resources, Europe would continue supporting communities affected by outbreaks.
“This emergency funding will help our partners act quickly, contain the outbreaks and protect the communities most at risk,” she said.
