The vaccines come from German military storage facilities and will be made available "shortly", according to the government's spokesperson Steffen Hebestreit.
The donation means that Germany is essentially emptying its stockpile of mpox vaccines, which totals around 118,000 doses, according to the German Ministry of Defense.
Germany is also providing financial support to the World Health Organization (WHO), but wants to work together with European partners in the long run to help Africa start its own vaccine production.
The WHO has declared the increase in mpox cases in Kinshasa-Congo and other African nations a global health emergency and has also called for increased production and donations of vaccines.
The organization's Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says in a statement on Monday afternoon that the mpox outbreak can be stopped, but that $135 million in funding will be required to handle the disease's spread and "a comprehensive and coordinated action plan".
Mpox has been known for decades, but the variant currently spreading in Africa, called clade 1, is believed to be both more contagious and deadly than variant clade 2, whose spread took off in 2022 and which is also present in Sweden.
The virus spreads from animals to humans and also between humans through close physical contact. The disease causes fever, muscle pain, and painful blisters and sores.
