GENEVA – UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, needs $21.4 million until the end of the year to urgently scale up critical response and prevention efforts for refugees in countries impacted by the mpox emergency. The appeal, launched today, aims to support 9.9 million forcibly displaced people and host communities in 35 countries across Africa.

At least 88 mpox cases have been reported among refugees in Africa, with 68 of them among refugees in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the country that has recorded the highest number of cases globally. Cases have also been reported among refugees in the Republic of the Congo and Rwanda.

Although mpox has been endemic in parts of Africa for decades, the rising number of cases of the new strain of the disease, clade 1b, particularly in the DRC, led the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare a public health emergency of international concern on 14 August. To date, there have been over 20,000 suspected cases reported in 2024 in Africa.