The country hopes to begin vaccinations on October 8 but faces huge logistical challenges.The first shipment of nearly 100,000 doses of mpox vaccines is expected to arrive in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on Thursday.

The Central African country of about 100 million people is at the epicentre of an mpox outbreak that the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global public health emergency last month.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus confirmed the doses, manufactured by Bavarian Nordic and donated by the European Union, were due to arrive on Thursday.

Cris Kacita, head of DRC's mpox outbreak response chief, earlier told the Reuters news agency about the planned shipments.

"We'll receive the first batch on Sept 5 and a second one on Sept 7," Kacita said in a WhatsApp message, without giving further details on the number of doses or the provider.

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said more than 99,000 doses were due to arrive on Thursday, with the flight from Denmark expected to land at Kinshasa's international airport at 11:00 GMT.

Another flight carrying a similar number is scheduled to arrive before the end of the week.

More than 17,500 mpox cases and 629 deaths have been reported in the DRC since the start of the year, accordin ...