Congo

June 24 (UPI) — A doctor who traveled to the Democratic Republic of Congo was being treated for Ebola at a hospital in France, French officials said Wednesday.

The doctor was admitted to a special health facility and is in stable condition, the country’s health ministry said in a statement. Health workers are tracing anyone who may have come into contact with the doctor. Any contacts will be isolated for 21 days and closely monitored.

The DRC has had an outbreak of Ebola in recent months that has rocked the region. Fighting in the area, which has caused displacement, has made the outbreak worse, and the disease has spread into neighboring Uganda.

More than 1,000 cases have been confirmed and more than 260 people have died from the disease.

It’s the first confirmed European case, though an American doctor was treated at a German hospital in May. Dr. Peter Stafford has recovered and been released from the hospital.

The doctor in France works for the Alliance of International Medical Action, which has been working on the Ebola response in Congo, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization, said in a news conference.

“This case is a reminder of the risks faced by frontline responders,” Tedros said. He added that 82 health care workers have become ill during the outbreak.

Last week the WHO said 17 health workers who had caught Ebola in Congo had died.

ALIMA said the ill doctor is a man who had been working in an area where the virus is.

“Contamination prevention measures have been in place since the beginning of our intervention to protect our teams,” ALIMA said in a statement.

The French health ministry said the risk of spreading the disease to the wider European population was low, citing the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control.

Ebola spreads only through direct contact with the bodily fluids of a sick person.

France has confirmed its first Ebola case in the country during the current outbreak, as a doctor returning from a humanitarian mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo tested positive, French health authorities said.

In a statement on Wednesday, the French Health Ministry said the healthcare worker was operating in one of the areas where the virus was circulating.

“The patient is being treated at a leading healthcare facility, following strict biosafety protocols,” the ministry said. “All precautionary measures, including the patient’s isolation, were implemented upon arrival in France, with transfer to the hospital under secure conditions to prevent any risk of contamination,” it said.

An epidemiological investigation is under way to identify individuals who may have been in contact with the patient. They will be contacted by health authorities to self-isolate for 21 days, the statement added.

Since May, the northeastern Ituri province of the DRC has been the epicentre of an Ebola outbreak, which has killed more than 260 people and infected more than a thousand so far in the central African country. Cases have also been reported in neighbouring Uganda.

On May 17, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak a “public health emergency of international concern”.

Most previous Ebola outbreaks in DRC were caused by a virus called Ebola Zaire, but this outbreak is caused by a different strain called Bundibugyo, for which there are currently no approved vaccines or treatments.

Joao Neves opens the scoring for Portugal with early goal, but Yoane Wissa equalises in first-half injury time.

Cristiano Ronaldo’s record-equalling sixth World Cup got off to a disappointing start as the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) secured their first-ever point at the football finals, drawing 1-1 with Portugal in their Group K match.

Yoane Wissa’s header cancelled out Joao Neves’s early goal on Wednesday, and the African side – appearing in their first World Cup since 1974, when their country was known as Zaire – more than held their own.

Portugal’s Ronaldo, 41, was largely a peripheral figure throughout the match, failing to make the impact his great rival Lionel Messi had achieved on Tuesday in scoring a hat-trick against Algeria.

The DRC’s achievement was even greater, given that their preparations had been disrupted by the Ebola outbreak back in their country.

Some Portugal players were wearing wrist bands, given to them by their Prime Minister Luis Montenegro, in tribute to late teammate Diogo Jota, who was killed in a car crash last year.

Portugal got off to the perfect start, with Neves powering home a header from Pedro Neto’s cross in the sixth minute.

However, despite dominating possession, they lacked a cutting edge, and well into time added on in the first half, their opponents made them pay.

Wissa rose unmarked to head past Diogo Costa in the Portuguese goal, sparking wild celebrations on the pitch, the bench and among the Congolese fans in the stadium as the Newcastle forward registered his country’s first-ever goal at a World Cup.

Former Portuguese defensive bulwark Pepe, watching from the VIP seats, did not look impressed.

Bernardo Silva had started the day by joining Real Madrid on a free transfer, but he ended it by watching from the bench after coach Roberto Martinez took him off at half-time.

He was briefly off his feet celebrating when Joao Cancelo’s overhead kick hit the back of the net – only for it to be ruled out for offside.

The Congolese were matching the Portuguese, though, and 35-year-old veteran striker Cedric Bakambu shrugged aside Bruno Fernandes, but his shot came back off the near post.

Ronaldo finally had a chance to shine when presented with a chance by Francisco Conceicao’s pass. But he fluffed his lines, sending it wide of the post.

The same combination linked up again minutes later, with Conceicao – a far livelier presence than Silva had been – teeing up Ronaldo. But once again the result was the same, and the ball went wide.

Portugal thought they had at least got a corner, but when it was not given, Conceicao slammed the ball into the ground in frustration as his side failed to pick up three points in their opener.

The ⁠number of confirmed cases in ⁠the country has ​increased to 837, including 196 deaths.

The current Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) could become deadlier than the worst outbreak on record, which killed more than 11,000 people, says the head of Africa’s Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).

⁠The ⁠number of confirmed cases in ⁠the country has increased to 837, including 196 deaths, ‌government data showed on Tuesday.

“If we don’t stop the outbreak very soon, it will be worse than what we had in West Africa and eastern DRC,” Africa CDC Director-General Jean Kaseya said during a virtual meeting of African leaders and international donors in Burundi on Tuesday.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Kaseya said tens of thousands of people who may have been exposed to Ebola had not yet been traced or contacted.

“The contact tracing is a major indicator and a major issue. We are missing more than 26,000 people, and we don’t know where they are, and we don’t know if they are contaminating other people.”

A ⁠Red Cross official said that the epidemic had not yet peaked in the country.

“We ⁠are afraid that this could last one year to end this disease,” Bruno Michon, operations manager for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said.

The response has been hampered by a lack of treatment centres and by community resistance to stringent hygiene measures. Health officials said that, more than a month since ⁠the outbreak was declared, the true scale was still unknown.

The bodies of ⁠Ebola victims are highly infectious after death, and unsafe traditional burials – in which family members handle ⁠the body without proper protective equipment – are a leading driver of transmission.

So far, the continent has raised less than a fifth of the $518 million it is seeking to bolster measures to contain the outbreak, according to Burundi’s President Evariste Ndayishimiye, who also chairs the African Union.

The shortfall has raised concern among authorities, who fear the consequences could be devastating if the virus is not brought under control quickly.

There is no approved treatment or vaccine for this strain of Ebola. The World Health Organization (WHO) says it could take up to nine months for a vaccine to be ready.

Neighbouring Uganda has recorded 19 cases, 14 of them among people who had travelled from the DRC. The country has also reported two deaths.

The Allied Democratic Forces, a militant armed group operating in the volatile borderlands of the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), have sacked 12 villages in the Bambodi sector of Tshopo province, displacing hundreds of people. 

Tryphen Mabikinyambey, a member of the provincial parliament representing Bafwasende, said the ADF militants are presently only two hours away on foot from these villages in Tshopo. For months, the ADF terrorists have been based in villages dominated by the Badumbisa people in Mambasa, close to the now-abandoned villages in Tshopo. Tryphen added that many civilians in Bambodi have sought refuge in Nia-Nia, Bafwasende Centre, and Kisangani.

“The ADF rebels feel at home there. They are at ease. We have already reported their presence, yet there has still been no appropriate response from the authorities. The population is being emptied from the tribal group. There is no response from the national, provincial or local authorities,” the parliamentarian said.

He noted that all schools have been closed and that no hospitals are operational in the deserted area. “Even individuals in mining camps have left. Life is becoming increasingly challenging for everyone who is living under constant threats,” he remarked.

The representative is urging the Congolese government to launch a comprehensive operation to protect the local populations. He stated that the ADF rebels are relocating from the Bapere tribal group in North Kivu, where they are being chased by a coalition of Congolese and Ugandan armed forces as part of the joint Operation Shujaa. Unfortunately, as the ADF is chased from one area, it seeks refuge in quieter zones, such as those in Mambasa and Bafwasende, which now pose significant risks to residents.

“When they are tracked down, they search for calm areas. And these places are in the Mambasa territory and Bafwasende,” he said, noting that the ADF terrorists have been sending tracts. “They send those they have ‘rescued’ with letters of threats against Bafwasende territory and Tshopo province.”

The terrorists have also recently killed scores in North Kivu, triggering a fresh trove of armed violence in the eastern DRC. On June 4, for instance, local civil society sources said four bodies were found in the Kingeste area and a fifth one near Ngite. 

“As it stands, 21 people are dead. We’ve found four bodies around Kingeste and one near Ngite. We want to see the military pursue the assailants to their hideout, as we will face extermination if no action is taken,” said Louis Kisaki, the president of the Batangi-Mbau civil society organisation in DRC.

The recent violent waves have instilled fear and panic in Mbau and its surroundings, as the population is anxious about a potential return of the attackers to cause chaos again. Since the ADF’s assault on Mbau, many families have avoided spending nights at home, with numerous households relocating to areas deemed safer, including Oicha, the chief town of Beni territory. Economic activities have also come to a standstill across Mbau and neighbouring areas.

In just three days, the ADF terrorists have killed 40 individuals in attacks on the town and territory of Beni. The attackers have also kidnapped several civilians, who remain in captivity with hopes of their release dwindling each day.

World Cup cohosts United States have warned the Democratic Republic of the Congo team to isolate due to Ebola fears.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo ‌(DRC) have no plans to change their preparations for the 2026 World Cup, despite ⁠a warning from the ⁠United States that the team must isolate for 21 days before arriving in the country, a team official has said.

Andrew Giuliani, executive director of the ⁠White House Task Force for the World Cup, confirmed on Friday that the Congolese delegation needed to maintain a bubble where they are training in Belgium and isolate ⁠for 21 days or risk being denied entry after a deadly outbreak of the Ebola virus in the central African country.

The Congolese team are to be based in Houston at the tournament and will play an opening Group K fixture against Portugal on June 17, followed by matches against ‌Colombia on June 23 in Guadalajara, Mexico, and against Uzbekistan on June 27 in Atlanta.

“We’ve been very clear to Congo that they should maintain the integrity of their bubble for 21 days before they can then come to Houston on June 11,” Giuliani told ESPN on Saturday.

“We’ve made it very clear to the Congo government as well that they need to maintain that bubble, or they risk not being able to travel to the United ⁠States. We cannot be any clearer.”

But a team spokesperson said that at ⁠this stage there was no change to their schedule, which includes a friendly against Denmark in Liege, Belgium, on June 3 and another against Chile in Cadiz, Spain, six days later.

“We have kept our training programme. No ⁠player in the squad has come from DR Congo,” the official said.

The entire squad of players are based outside the DRC, mostly ⁠in Europe, including coach Sebastien Desabre. A few team officials ⁠arrived at the training camp in Belgium from the DRC earlier this week.

The team had planned a three-day trip to Kinshasa next week as a celebratory send-off before they head to their first World Cup in 52 years, but ‌that trip has been cancelled.

The World Health Organization on Friday raised to “very high” the risk of the rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebola turning into a national outbreak in the DRC ‌and ‌has declared the outbreak there and in neighbouring Uganda an emergency of international concern.

Nearly 750 suspected cases and 177 suspected deaths have been recorded following the outbreak in DRC.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the US has banned entry from non-Americans who have been in the DR Congo, Uganda or South Sudan in the previous 21 days.

All DR Congo’s players are based outside the country and will not be affected by the restrictions now the training camp has been cancelled.

“If there are other people that are going to be coming in, they need to have a separate bubble from that team,” Giuliani said.

“If they end up coming, and any of those people end up symptomatic, they are risking the entire team being able to come and compete in this World Cup.”

On Friday the public health risk from the Ebola outbreak in the DR Congo was raised from “high” to “very high” by the World Health Organization (WHO).

WHO director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the risk in the wider region in Africa was “high” but that it remained “low” globally.

Dr Congo are due to play friendlies against Denmark on 3 June in Belgium and Chile on 9 June in Spain.

The World Cup runs from 11 June to 19 July, and DR Congo play Portugal in their opening game on 17 June.

At least 17 civilians were killed in an attack by rebels of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) in the Ituri province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). On Tuesday, May 19, the ADF terrorists operated for hours in the Alima locality before moving on to maim locals in the neighbouring villages of Peleki, Manyama and its environs, where houses were set ablaze.

Peresi Mamboro, the coordinator of the Congolese New Civil Society of Babila-Bambomi, commented on the situation, saying, “The casualty figure of the ADF incursion yesterday at 20 hours now stands at 17 dead. The enemy passed in Peleki before burning several houses in Manyama and its environs. This figure is still provisional because the enemy continues to roam as a free electron in the zone.” 

Horror is being visited on several areas of Mambasa territory, and, faced with this situation, civil society is calling on the population to reinforce its vigilance. “We call on the population to be vigilant while denouncing all suspicious movement,” Peresi Mamboro said.

The ADF combatants have been intensifying their attacks in the region and have already crossed the national road number 44 on the Biakato-Mambasa highway, near the hills of Alima village, before dispersing in several directions after the attack.

“After the attack, the assailants broke into two groups. One group returned to the east, passing through the office of the Congolese national police in Alima, while one other group took the direction to the west of Babila-Babombi by passing through Alima stadium avenue,” Zephani Kataliko, a human rights defender in the Babila-Babombi chiefdom, noted.

This recent attack has reignited panic and fear in Mambasa territory, which has also faced a resurgence of violence attributed to the ADF over the past weeks. In several villages, families continue to flee to areas deemed safer, while travel is severely disrupted on certain roads due to fears of rebel ambushes.

Local actors fear that, in the absence of sustained military operations and reinforced control over the movements of armed groups, the ADF may consolidate its presence in the forest zones of Babila-Babombi.

DRC’s public sendoff in the capital was also cancelled before their departure for the FIFA World Cup.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) football team have cancelled a three-day World Cup preparation training camp and a planned public farewell to fans in the capital, Kinshasa, because of an Ebola outbreak in the east of the country.

DRC are scheduled to play World Cup warm-up games against Denmark in Liege, Belgium, on June 3, and Chile in southern Spain on June 9. Both matches are going ahead as planned, team spokesman Jerry Kalemo told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

“There were three stages of preparation: In Kinshasa to say goodbye to the public, Belgium and Spain with two friendly matches against Denmark in Liege and Chile in Spain, and the third stage from June 11 in Houston, United States. Only one stage was canceled – the one in Kinshasa,” Kalemo said.

The team’s pre-tournament preparations will now take place elsewhere after an outbreak of a rare type of Ebola known as Bundibugyo, which is thought to have killed more than 130 people and caused nearly 600 suspected cases.

The World Health Organization has declared it a public health emergency of international concern.

All of the DRC players and the team’s French coach, Sebastien Desabre, are based outside of the central African country, with most of them playing in France.

A number of team staff who are based in DRC “are leaving in the next hours”, Kalemo said.

Football’s governing body FIFA issued a statement that “it is aware of and monitoring the situation regarding an Ebola outbreak and is in close communication with the DRC Football Association to ensure that the team are made aware of all medical and security guidance.”

The American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said this week that the US would ban the entry of all foreign nationals who had been in DRC, Uganda and South Sudan within the past three weeks. The ban lasts for 30 days.

A US official said the Congolese World Cup team would not be affected by the CDC entry ban because they had been training in Europe for the past several weeks. That means team members, coaches and other officials who have not returned to DRC in the past three weeks would not be subject to the entry ban, according to the official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the policy has not been publicly announced.

Those members of the Congolese World Cup delegation who did return to DRC during the 21 days will be subject to the same quarantine requirements as US citizens seeking to return from affected countries, according to the official. That exception will not apply to Congolese fans who want to attend the World Cup, the official said.

The White House World Cup Task Force, housed under the Department of Homeland Security, stressed that it is “coordinating closely” with various agencies on health and security matters and that the government is “closely monitoring” the outbreak.

DRC, who qualified for the World Cup after winning a playoff tournament in Mexico, have been drawn in Group K. They face Portugal in their opening game in Houston on June 17.

The Leopards then face Colombia in Guadalajara on June 23 before playing Uzbekistan in Atlanta for their final group game on June 27.

DRC’s first World Cup qualification since 1974, when the country was called Zaire, led to scenes of jubilation across the nation, which has been battered by decades of conflict.

“I am afraid of dying.” From Bukavu to Kinshasa, concern is spreading among residents and street vendors as Ebola cases rise. In cities hundreds of miles apart, people are wearing face masks and calling for stronger protections from the latest outbreak in DR Congo.

The US has banned non-Americans who have visited DR Congo, Uganda or South Sudan in the last 21 days from entry.

The United States will ensure that the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DRC) football team can enter the country to play in the World Cup, making an exemption to an Ebola-related entry ban, according to a senior Department of State official.

“We expect the DRC team to be able to attend the World Cup,” the official said on condition of anonymity.

The US has banned non-Americans who have been in the DRC, Uganda or South Sudan in the previous 21 days from visiting the country due to a deadly outbreak of Ebola.

The US official said the DRC team, the only one among the three countries to have qualified for football’s premier event, had already been training in Europe, so they may not have been subject to the ban in any case.

But if they had, in fact, been in the DRC over the last 21 days, they would be subject to the sort of strict screening required for returning US citizens.

“We’re working to get them into the same protocol for testing in isolation that American citizens returning and permanent residents would be,” the official said.

The official said the exemption would not apply to everyday fans from the DRC looking to come to cheer on the team.

The DRC begin their World Cup campaign in Texas against Portugal on June 17.

The recent Ebola outbreak in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has resulted in a rising death toll, reaching 118 fatalities on Monday, May 18, which is a significant jump from the 80 deaths recorded just two days earlier. This outbreak is the 17th recorded Ebola virus epidemic in the DRC and has been described as a matter of international emergency by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Patrick Muyaya, the DRC government spokesperson, announced that two additional health zones have been identified as impacted by the virus. These include Nyankunde in the Irumu territory of Ituri province. A suspected case has also emerged in Goma, the chief town of North Kivu.

The outbreak is now affecting multiple geographic areas, including Mongwalu, Rwampara, Bunia, Nyankunde in Ituri, as well as Butembo-Katwa and Goma in North Kivu. 

Butembo, a commercial town in North Kivu, was severely impacted during the Ebola Zaire strain outbreak from 2018 to 2020. Goma, which has been under the control of the M23 rebels since early 2025, serves as a significant regional transit hub on the border with Rwanda and Uganda.

The Bundibugyo Ebola strain, noted as the 17th epidemic in the DRC, was declared on May 15. Complete sequencing of the viral genome confirms that it is a genetically distinct variant from previous Bundibugyo outbreaks in 2007 and 2012, originating directly from an animal reserve, according to Jean-Jacques Muyembe, director of the DRC National Institute of Biomedical Research.

On May 17, after the WHO declared the epidemic an international public health emergency, the British organisation Oxfam also estimated that the global number of infections currently stands at 400.

The World Health Organization is getting health experts and supplies to DR Congo to battle the Ebola outbreak. WHO representative Anne Ancia says the situation in Bunia, the epicentre of the outbreak, is complex and difficult.

The World Health Organisation (WHO), a United Nations specialised agency, has declared the resurgence of the Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) a case of international concern. Following the declaration of the 17th Ebola epidemic in Ituri province on Saturday, May 16, the WHO announced that the resurgence is attributed to the Bundibugyo strain found in both the DRC and Uganda. 

Tedros Ghebreyesus, WHO’s Director General, said the declaration is based on several elements, notably the high level of positivity of the first samples of tests, the already documented propagation outside Congolese borders, as well as the absence of a vaccine or approved treatment against the specific strain. He noted that the current epidemic does not meet the criteria for a pandemic emergency at this time. 

The recent Ebola virus outbreak is occurring in an area of the country plagued by violence against civilians, which is linked to the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebels, who continue to inflict suffering on the local population despite ongoing joint military efforts by the Congolese armed forces and the Ugandan Peoples Defence Forces (UPDF). In addition to the joint operations, various local militia groups are also active, including the Cooperative for the Development of Congo (CODECO), the Zaire faction, the Convention pour la Revolution Populaire (CRP), and others. This situation has deteriorated the humanitarian conditions in this region of the DRC, leading to a significant displacement of people.

However, the government of Rwanda, through its Ministry of Health, has said it is closely monitoring the resurgence of the Ebola epidemic in the DRC’s Ituri province, noting that no cases of the virus have been detected in Rwanda so far. The government noted that it has taken some measures, including increased vigilance on border posts with the DRC.

“As a precautionary measure, Rwanda has reinforced the testing and vigilance at entry points situated along the border with the DR Congo. Health teams have been mobilised, and the surveillance systems have been reinforced in order to ensure early detection and a rapid intervention in case of need”, the Rwanda Ministry of Health announced in a statement dated May 17.

Sabin Nsanzimana, the country’s Minister of Public Health, who is also an epidemiologist, noted that his ministry would continue to collaborate with national, regional, and international partners to protect the health and security of the Rwandan population.

The epidemic in Ituri province arose nearly six months after the Congolese government announced the end of the 16th Ebola epidemic in Kasai province on Dec. 1, 2025. Following the recovery of the last patient on Oct. 19, 2025, no cases were recorded during the subsequent 42 days.

However, Roger Kambathe, DRC’s Minister of Public Health, Hygiene, and Social Welfare, rejected speculations in the country’s socio-political circles that the resurgence of the Ebola virus is due to negligence on the part of relevant health infrastructure and authorities. During a press conference on Saturday, May 16, the minister addressed accusations of failure in the sanitary surveillance system to manage alerts about the new Ebola epidemic in Ituri.

“You have said something that surprises me. You have said: ‘What did not work, the epidemic has been here for one month and you did not react’. I want to remind you that there was a patient, a nurse, who died in Bunia of an illness which was not reported. I gave the date: 24th April,” the minister said, clarifying that the corpse was eventually transferred to Mungwalu, where local traditional funeral rites caused the propagation of the virus.

“It was during the funeral ceremony that people were crying, thinking that the nurse died from a mysterious disease and touching the corpse, that cases of the virus started appearing,” Roger noted, adding that the first official notification of the virus was on May 5. “This first social notification was through social networks.”

“Three days afterwards, our teams made the official notification. Samples were taken”, the minister continued and stressed that the first analysis did not permit the identification of the particular Ebola strain. “We first researched the Zaire strain, but the results were negative.”

He also said samples were eventually sent to the national biomedical research institute in Kinshasa for complementary analyses, “and it was before yesterday that we received the confirmation of another strain. Thus, I do not know why you say ‘what did not work?’”.

Samuel argued that “there is a rule called ‘7-1-7’: be alerted in 7 days, intervene immediately, and post the diagnosis promptly. And that is what was done”. He assured that response measures are currently in place, particularly through logistics and aerial resources. Between May 8 and May 17, aircraft were already dispatched. This spans just under nine days, and the minister stated that the issue does not lie with the system.

One day before the official government communication on May 16, Jean Kaseya, the Director General of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, warned of the high risk of regional spread of the epidemic. Faced with the situation, a high-level regional meeting was convened with the health authorities of the DRC, Uganda, and South Sudan, as well as several international partners, including the WHO and the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF).

According to Jean, who is in charge of the African Union’s health agency, the efforts would be centred on strengthening epidemiological surveillance, laboratory capacities, infection control, community engagement, and transborder coordination.

In a related development, measures to fight against the virus are being intensified in Ituri province. At least five tons of medical supplies were sent to Bunia on Sunday, May 17, to support teams fighting the virus. The material arrived at Murongo airport aboard a humanitarian flight, coordinated by the WHO and its partners. On arrival in Bunia, Anne Ancia, WHO representative in DRC, confirmed that the logistical support aims to urgently reinforce response capacities in the zones affected by the epidemic. According to her, the situation requires rapid mobilisation and coordination to prevent the disease from spreading further in the province, which is already weakened by insecurity and population displacement.

“We call on the population to collaborate with the health teams, to rapidly report suspected cases and to respect preventive measures. The response cannot succeed without the involvement of the community”, Anne Ancia charged. The equipment, including individual protective gear, tents, and hospital beds, would enable intensified frontline interventions, strengthened prevention, and infection control to protect communities in the affected zones.

This medical assistance comes while several suspected cases and deaths linked to Ebola have been reported in certain health zones of Ituri, notably in Rwampara and Bunia, forcing the health authorities to reinforce the surveillance and prevention measures. On the ground, medical teams continue community sensitisation, follow-up contacts, and the installation of health control mechanisms to limit the chain of transmission.

It’s a global health crisis – not a pandemic.

But the World Health Organization is warning that the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and neighbouring Uganda could be much larger than what has been detected so far.

The global health body is advising countries to activate national disaster mechanisms and introduce cross-border and internal screening.

Presenter: James Bays

Guests:

Ariel Kestens – Head of the Kinshasa delegation, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

Dr Margaret Harris – Lecturer at the United Nations Institute for Training and Research

Dr Ahmed Ogwell Ouma – Former deputy director-general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention

The armed forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have taken over the town of Luvungi in the Rusizi Plain of Uvira territory in South Kivu after M23 fighters vacated the area. Following the fierce battle for control among the warring parties, the Rwandan troops and their M23 allies retreated, succumbing to military and diplomatic pressure.

The Congolese army officially retook control of the town on Monday, May 12, restoring the blurry hope of civilians trapped under the violent rule of the rebels.

“We do not know yet whether this withdrawal by the Rwandan army and their M23 surrogates is in respect of various UN resolutions and international demands for the Rwandan army to withdraw from zones they occupy in the DR Congo, or it is just a tactical military withdrawal,” a senior official of the armed forces declared in Kinshasa, the country’s capital city.

Some members of the M23 group and Rwandan fighters are reportedly still present in Katogota, a neighbouring town to Luvungi. The Congolese army has stated that rebel reinforcements have arrived in Kamanyola, which is a strategic border town in South Kivu.

Reagan Mbuyi Kalonji, the spokesperson for Operations Sukola 2, a military campaign aimed at neutralising rebel groups in South Kivu, has revealed that Rwandan forces have deployed heavy weapons on the Bugarama hills. This positioning is intended to maintain their military and strategic control over Kamanyola and its surrounding areas.

The entry of Congolese troops into Luvungi signifies the culmination of troop movements observed in the Rusizi Plain and the upper plateau of South Kivu. Since Saturday, May 9, the Congolese army has been systematically occupying positions left vacant by the M23 fighters, moving from Sange to Mutarule and finally to Luvungi.

The army attributes the withdrawal of Rwandan troops and their M23 allies to “intense military and diplomatic pressure,” while the M23/AFC describes their withdrawal as a “repositioning and a gesture of goodwill” towards the peace process. 

Multiple burials have been reported by locals

At least 80 deaths have been reported as a country battles an outbreak of a highly contagious disease.

The deaths were confirmed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s new Ebola disease outbreak in the eastern Ituri province, authorities said, as health workers raced to intensify screening and contact tracing to contain the disease. Officials first announced the outbreak on Friday, with 65 deaths and 246 suspected cases. Meanwhile, journalists in Ituri’s capital, Bunia, interviewed local people who recounted their fears and constant burials.

“Every day, people are dying … and this has been going on for about a week. In a single day, we bury two, three, or even more people,” said Jean Marc Asimwe, a resident of Bunia. “At this point, we don’t really know what kind of disease it is.”

Congolese health minister Samuel-Roger Kamba said late on Friday that there have been eight laboratory-confirmed cases, among them four deaths. Test results confirmed the Bundibugyo virus, a variant of the disease that has been less prominent in Congo’s past outbreaks.

This is the country’s 17th outbreak since Ebola first emerged in the country in 1976, the Associated Press reproted. Ebola is highly contagious and can be contracted through bodily fluids such as vomit, blood, or semen. The disease it causes is rare, but severe and often fatal.

The suspected index case in the latest outbreak is a nurse who died at a hospital in Bunia, Mr Kamba said, with the case dating back three weeks to April 24. He did not say whether samples from the nurse were tested, but said the person presented symptoms suggestive of Ebola.

DR Congo has experience in managing Ebola outbreaks, but often faces logistical challenges in getting expertise and supplies to affected regions. As Africa’s second-largest country by land area, Congo’s provinces are far from one another and mostly battling conflict. Ituri, for instance, is around 620 miles from the nation’s capital, Kinshasa, and is ravaged by violence from Islamic State-backed militants.

The disease is so far confirmed in three health zones in the Ituri province, including the capital city, Bunia, as well as in Rwampara and Mongwalu where the outbreak is concentrated.

Foreign Office advice for Democratic Republic of the Congo

As of Saturday afternoon, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office had not given specific advice about travel to the Democratic Republic of the Congo in regards to the Ebola outbreak.

Its current advice, which it said remained valid on May 16, was that UK citizens should avoid travel to muliple parts of the country due to political instability.

It said: “If you are in North or South Kivu and judge it safe to do so, and if routes are available, you should leave. M23 rebels and Rwanda Defence Forces (RDF) have captured the cities of Goma and Bukavu and the surrounding areas in North and South Kivu. M23 rebels and RDF captured the city of Uvira in December 2025, and then withdrew from the city in January 2026, though clashes continue in the surrounding areas. The situation remains highly unstable and unpredictable. Routes to depart Uvira, Goma and Bukavu are limited and may change at short notice.

“The border crossings between Rwanda and the DRC at Gisenyi-Goma and Ruzizi-Bukavu could close at short notice. Goma and Bukavu airports have been attacked and commercial flights are no longer operating from the airports.

“Support from the UK government is severely limited outside Kinshasa. You should not assume that FCDO will be able to provide assistance to leave the country in the event of serious unrest or crisis.”

The FCDO advises against all but essential travel to:

• The districts of N’djili and Kimbanseke in Kinshasa city south of the main access road to N’djili airport, in Nsele commune
• The N1 road in Kinshasa Province, between and including Menkao to the west, Kenge to the east, the border of Mai-Ndombe province to the north, and 10km to the south

The FCDO advises against all travel to within 50km of the border with the Central African Republic and to the provinces of:

• Haut-Uélé and Ituri, including the entire DRC-South Sudan border
• North Kivu
• South Kivu
• Maniema
• Tanganyika
• Haut-Lomami

It also advises against all travel to the Kwamouth territory of Mai-Ndombe Province. This is between, and including, the towns of Kwamouth, Bandundu and the southern border of Mai-Ndombe province. Further, it advises against all travel to the province of Kasaï Oriental and against all but essential travel to the provinces of Kasaï and Kasaï Central and to Bangoka International Airport in Kisangani.

DAKAR, Senegal — It’s an existence that Congo’s president has described as “living the Congolese dream.” For the 15 Latin Americans deported to the African nation under the Trump administration’s widely criticized crackdown on migrants, it feels more like a nightmare.

The Associated Press spoke with one, a 29-year old Colombian woman who confirmed what people deported to other African nations have described: A shackled deportation despite a U.S. immigration judge’s protection order. Confinement in a hotel with supervised outings.

And an impossible choice: Return to a home country with the risk of persecution or stay in Congo, a country the Colombian woman had never heard of before she arrived.

“They treat us like we’re children,” she said as their three-month Congolese visas near an end, with no plan in sight.

“What would one do in a completely unknown place, without a place to live and without knowing what to do?” she added, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

It was not immediately clear what a new U.S. court ruling, saying the U.S. likely broke the law by deporting a fellow Colombian to Congo, will mean for her.

A United Nations-affiliated group plays a central role

In her interview from the hotel in Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, where she and other deportees are held, the woman gave new details about the central role that a United Nations-affiliated body, the International Organization for Migration, is playing.

She said deportees are allowed to leave the hotel about once a week and only accompanied by IOM staff. When they shop at a supermarket or withdraw money they are quickly ushered back to their vehicle, with IOM staff never out of sight.

“They choose where we go and what we buy,” she said.

At the hotel, she said, IOM staff have organized activities like painting, music and volleyball but many deportees have stopped participating, bored with the routine. She goes for meals and remains in her room otherwise, making late-night calls to her 10-year-old daughter in Colombia and worrying when she will see her again.

Most striking is the role IOM staff are playing in presenting deportees with their possible fates.

They have offered the woman two paths: Return to Colombia, where a U.S. judge has ruled she cannot safely be sent back, while receiving IOM “protection and assistance,” or remain in Congo with no support.

“They are given impossible choices,” said Alma David, the woman’s U.S.-based attorney. “By deporting them to a third country with no opportunity to contest being sent there, the U.S. not only violated their due process rights but our own immigration laws and our obligations under international treaties.”

Congo is one of at least eight African countries that have made deals with the Trump administration to facilitate deportations of third-country nationals, which legal experts say are effectively a legal loophole for the U.S. Most deportees had received legal orders of protection from U.S. judges shielding them against being returned to their home countries, lawyers said.

The AP has interviewed others sent to African nations who were forced to make risky decisions, such as a gay Moroccan asylum-seeker deported to Cameroon, a country where homosexuality is illegal.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security did not respond to questions about the Colombian woman’s case, but it has asserted that third-country deportation agreements “ensure due process under the U.S. Constitution.” The Trump administration says the agreements are needed to “remove criminal illegal aliens” whose country of origin will not take them back.

Details of Congo’s deal with U.S. are unclear

The details of Congo’s deal with the Trump administration are not clear. Other countries have received millions of dollars to participate.

Earlier this month, Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi called the agreement an “act of goodwill between partners,” with no financial compensation. It comes as Washington has ramped up pressure on neighboring Rwanda over its support for the M23 rebel group that has seized cities in eastern Congo — a dynamic some analysts say may explain Kinshasa’s willingness to take deportees.

“We agreed to do so as a friendly gesture, simply because it was what the Americans wanted,” Tshisekedi said, adding that the migrants are free to leave Congo at any time.

“We understand that psychologically they must be unsettled because, at first, they dreamed of living the American dream, and now they are living the Congolese dream — in a country they probably did not know and may never even have noticed on a map of the world,” Tshisekedi said.

Congolese human rights groups have called it a violation of international refugee law. The Congo-based Institute for Human Rights Research described the situation as “arbitrary detention by proxy for the United States.”

The current U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement policy says if a government has made blanket diplomatic assurances that it won’t persecute people who are deported, no further process is required for deportation, not even giving deportees notice where they are being sent, said David, the attorney.

“When they told me they were going to deport me, I almost fainted,” the Colombian woman said. She was told about Congo the day before the flight.

She was detained at a routine check-in with ICE

She said she left Colombia in 2024, following threats from armed groups and abuse by a former partner who worked for the government.

She went to Mexico, where she waited for a border appointment booked with the U.S. government. When she presented herself at an Arizona port of entry in September 2024, immigration officials determined she had a credible fear of persecution, clearing her to apply for asylum, but kept her in ICE detention.

“You spend a year and a half locked up, living the same day over and over again. You see fights, punishments where people are locked in cells for many hours. You lose your privacy even to use the bathroom,” she said.

Some officers made racist remarks. “They made derogatory comments toward us as migrants, shouted at us all the time and sometimes denied basic things like showers as punishment,” she said.

In May 2025, a federal judge granted her protection under the U.N. Convention Against Torture, ruling she could not be safely returned to Colombia, according to court documents seen by the AP.

She filed a habeas corpus petition and won her release in February. She moved to Texas and was required to wear a GPS monitoring device, but at her first check-in appointment with ICE, she was detained again.

“All they told me was that I was under detention, as they had found a third country for me,” she said.

Less than three weeks later, she was put on a plane to Congo. She and the other deportees arrived on April 17 after a nearly 24-hour charter flight during which their hands and feet were restrained.

She doesn’t feel safe in Congo

Now they stay at a hotel near Kinshasa’s airport, in tidy white bungalows. Congo’s government covers the cost, the IOM said. It was not clear whether that would last after the deportees’ visas run out.

The hotel gates are locked according to one of the deportees lawyers. The Colombian woman also said security personnel do not let them leave on their own.

They were told they could apply for asylum, an option no one has chosen. “I don’t feel safe in Congo,” the woman said.

An IOM spokesperson said the organization has provided her with humanitarian assistance based on an assessment of her vulnerability. It includes “protection interventions, referrals, rights safeguarding and promotion of migrants’ overall well-being,” with no details.

The IOM also may offer “assisted voluntary return” — covering documents, flights, transit and temporary housing on arrival — with migrants’ consent.

The IOM said it plays no role in determining who is deported and reserves the right to withdraw its assistance for deportees if “minimum protection standards” aren’t met.

The Colombian woman remains in limbo, anxious. She said the food “has made us very sick,” with stomach ailments ongoing.

Local languages, like French and Lingala, are as foreign as her surroundings.

“The worst part is having to go through all of that without having committed any crime, simply for going to another country to ask for safety and protection.”

Banchereau writes for the Associated Press.

Several women sexually violated in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have come forward to report the war crimes committed against them by the M23 rebels amid the ongoing war in the country. The women spoke to Human Rights Watch researchers, but asked to be kept anonymous out of fear of retribution from the predators. 

The international organisation documented it in a report the atrocities committed by the rebels and Rwandan soldiers against the Congolese women. The report, published on May 13,  revealed how the duo summarily executed men and raped women during raids on civilian communities. Victims described being raped under threat of death and at gunpoint in their homes or in fields while searching for food, according to the HRW report. The attackers assaulted or killed relatives who attempted to stop them from sexually violating women. The absence of operational healthcare services in Uvira during the violent operations deprived survivors of crucial medical attention, including access to post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) to prevent HIV infection.

A woman who was allegedly raped by a combination of the M23 rebels and Rwanda soldiers in Uvira told  HRW researchers about the hell she was put through by the invaders in Uvira. 

“They stripped me completely naked, tied my hands behind my back with my clothes and then raped me. They continued doing so for a long time, and when my husband tried to intervene, they took him outside our house and shot him dead, ” the woman whose identity is being withheld in order to maintain her dignity told HRW.

The woman eventually lost consciousness and later consulted a health professional, receiving analgesics and a post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) kit. She says she still suffers from a persistent infection. The woman is one of eight individuals identified in the recent HRW report. 

According to the report, survivors of the atrocities identified their torturers as M23 combatants and soldiers of the Rwandan army, notably because they spoke the Kinyarwanda language and wore uniforms of the Rwandan army. They also carried military hardware which could easily be recognised and linked to the Rwandan army. 

Another woman cited in the report revealed how she was sexually violated on the same day, while she was working on her farm in Katala, situated in Uvira territory. She said two fighters approached her, one of them pointed a gun at her and declared in Kinyarwanda: “If you don’t do what I tell you, I will kill you”. The men, whom she identified through their Rwandan army uniforms, then went ahead to rape her. She eventually went to the Kavimvira health centre in Uvira for treatment, but she received no medical attention.

A third woman revealed that she was also sexually assaulted in December when she went to search for food, as provisions have been dwindling since the arrival of the M23 rebels in the zone. She said a Congolese and a Rwandan assaulted her sexually.

“The Rwandan man said he wanted to kill me, but the Congolese said ‘no, rape her’,” the woman revealed. She said after having been raped, she was afraid to go to a hospital for treatment and rather opted to go buy drugs from a pharmacy which only sold antibiotics to her. She stated that she continues to experience pain and has ongoing bleeding, but she has been unable to undergo medical tests, including an HIV test. 

Another woman told HRW that she was sexually assaulted on January 3, 2026, while she was on her farm on the periphery of Uvira. She said an M23 combatant and a Rwandan soldier who were pretending to be searching for water accosted her, and one of them ordered, “If you shout, we will kill you”, adding that they had not been with a woman for over six months, during which time they were in the bush. Since the rape incident, she has been bleeding and sick.

The woman revealed that during the occupation of Uvira by the M23 rebels, hospitals were not providing treatment for sexual violence, so she did not benefit from the medical kit necessary within 72 hours following sexual violence.

“In all the accounts rendered, the survivors underlined the almost total absence of accessible health services during the M23 and Rwandan occupation, and in particular, the absence of post-rape treatment at the appropriate time, as well as adequate treatment for wounds and infections provoked by sexual violence. Other essential services, including psycho-social support, the collection of proofs and judicial assistance were also not available”, the HRW report reveals.

The United Nations Population Fund, on its part, notes that sexual violence committed by the belligerent parties in the Eastern DR Congo has increased, with more than 80,000 cases of rape reported between January and September 2025, which is a 32 per cent increase compared to the same period in 2024.

The sudden and chaotic cuts in international aid introduced by the American government at the beginning of 2025 abruptly halted emergency medical treatment and various forms of support for thousands of survivors of sexual violence.

The survivors have been confronted by a bigger risk of contracting HIV or unplanned pregnancies because the clinics and hospitals in the Eastern DR Congo no longer have stocks of post-exposure prophylactic (PEP) kits, which were hitherto mostly supplied by projects financed by the United States. These kits are supposed to be administered 72 hours after exposure in order to prevent infections like HIV.

The strategic town of Uvira has, since the M23/AFC rebels occupied Bukavu at the beginning of December 2025, become the provisional capital of South Kivu province despite the signing of the Washington Accords by Felix Tshisekedi and Paul Kagame in the presence of Donald Trump. Supported by Rwanda, the M23/AFC rebels launched a rapid offensive, resulting in the capture of the town.