China has donated $6 million to help stave off food shortages in the three African countries worst affected by the Ebola virus, the United Nations World Food Programme announced on Monday

The aid is part of Beijing's growing assistance to a continent where its companies have become major investors.

WFP China representative Brett Rierson said the money is being spent on one month of emergency food rations of mainly rice, lentils and yellow peas for 300,000 people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.