UNMEER
UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response, 2014-2015; the first UN mission for a health emergency.
UNMEER, the first UN mission set up for a health emergency, ran from 19 September 2014 to 31 July 2015; in September 2026 Ebola pledges for DR Congo reached about $3bn.
Last refreshed: 4 October 2026
Timeline for UNMEER
Mentioned in: G20 talks take Ebola pledges to US$3bn
Pandemics and BiosecurityBackground
UNMEER, the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response, was the first UN mission set up for a health emergency. On 18 September 2014 the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 2177, which declared the West African Ebola epidemic a threat to international peace and security. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the Council that day that he had decided to set up a mission, and he established UNMEER the next day, 19 September, after the General Assembly adopted resolution 69/1.
The mission had its headquarters in Accra, Ghana, with bases in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. It scaled up the response on the ground and closed on 31 July 2015, according to the UN.
Pledges rose sharply after UNMEER and Resolution 2177 in September 2014, but much of the money, and many new treatment centres, reached West Africa only after its epidemic had peaked. In DR Congo's 2026 Bundibugyo response, pledges reached about $3bn after G20 talks on 23 September, and Africa CDC said the next day that it would track them to disbursement.
UNMEER's money arrived after the peak
A Group of 20 meeting in New York on 23 September 2026 took Ebola pledges for DR Congo to about $3bn. UNMEER's own funding wave came 12 years earlier: Ban Ki-moon established the mission on 19 September 2014, the day after Resolution 2177, and pledges for West Africa then climbed steeply.
Much of that 2014 money, and many of UNMEER's new treatment centres, reached Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone after their epidemic had peaked. Africa CDC's director, Jean Kaseya, wants every dollar of the 2026 total traceable, and on 24 September Africa CDC said its Financial Tracking Mechanism would follow each pledge to disbursement.