Democratic Republic of the Congo

Ebola outbreak has killed 2,128 people out of around 4,566 recorded cases in the DRC, according to government figures.

The latest Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has spread to a sixth province after a death was recorded in previously unaffected Bas-Uele, said the head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

Jean Kaseya said on Thursday that the man died in Buta, the capital of Bas-Uele province, after travelling from Haut-Uele province.

“If we do not stop this outbreak, it will last more than a year and will be the largest in the world,” Kaseya warned. That would also increase the risk of the outbreak spreading to other countries, he added.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says it is spreading faster than any previous one.

The latest outbreak began in the northeastern Ituri province and infections have also been recorded in North Kivu, South Kivu, Haut-Uele and Tshopo provinces.

It has killed 2,128 people out of 4,566 cases recorded, according to government figures. There are no approved vaccines or treatments for the rare Bundibugyo strain of the virus responsible for this outbreak.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday that “at its current pace”, the outbreak was on track to surpass the deadliest on record, which started over a decade ago and killed more than 11,000 people.

The current outbreak was formally declared on May 15 but the virus had begun circulating in February, health officials said this week.

The WHO hopes to reverse the spread of the virus within three months, but warned that the outbreak would not end by then.

Ebola is rare but highly contagious and can be contracted from bodily fluids and contaminated surfaces and materials, such as bedding and clothing. The disease it causes is severe and often fatal.

Clinical trials of two possible treatments for this type of Ebola began last month in Ituri.

Two vaccines developed specifically for the Bundibugyo virus are being tested in people for the first time, the WHO said on Wednesday.

The UN health agency also plans to test whether an existing Ebola vaccine could protect people against the latest virus after studies in animals showed promising results.

Earlier cases of the disease were wrongly attributed to malaria and typhoid, WHO said.

The fastest-growing Ebola outbreak on record started in February, months before it was officially declared in mid-May, said the World Health Organization (WHO) as responders in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) battle the surge in cases.

Mohamed Janabi, the WHO’s regional director for Africa, told a news conference on Monday that sequencing indicated the outbreak’s start, with some cases early on wrongly attributed to malaria and typhoid.

“So we are chasing the virus, the virus is ahead of us,” Janabi said.

Confirmed cases of Ebola in the DRC have reached 4,200, including at least 1,900 deaths, according to latest government figures.

The Ebola outbreak declared on May 15 is unlike most previous ones because the rare Bundibugyo virus has no approved vaccines or treatments. Early testing was conducted for the more common type of Ebola, contributing to delays.

The outbreak is unfolding in challenging conditions, with strikes by some unpaid health workers, threats by rebel groups, anger among long-traumatised communities and misinformation asserting that Ebola isn’t real.

Health teams travel on remote, unpaved roads and have reported shortages of protective gear, while the vast population of displaced people struggles to find reliable water sources for washing hands hygienically.

This Ebola outbreak has killed more people at a faster rate than any other, including the 2014-2016 outbreak in West Africa that is considered the worst on record with over 11,000 deaths in at least 28,000 cases. That outbreak took about eight months to reach 1,000 deaths.

Ebola is rare but highly contagious and can be contracted via contact with bodily fluids, such as blood or semen, and with contaminated surfaces and materials, such as bedding and clothing. The disease it causes is severe and often fatal.

Cases doubling in some regions

Last week, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Ebola is spreading faster than efforts to fight it. New cases are doubling in some hotspots, Tedros said on X after meeting with officials in the capital, Kinshasa.

Access to healthcare in the region had already been challenged by years of rebel conflict in one of the DRC’s most remote and vulnerable areas.

On Friday, the WHO recommended the start of full-scale human trials for the Ervebo vaccine, the only licensed Ebola vaccine. While Ervebo has proven to be safe and effective against the more common Zaire strain of the Ebola virus, WHO experts said early data showed it may also give some protection against the rare Bundibugyo strain.

A specific Bundibugyo vaccine is the preferred option for fighting the current outbreak, according to experts from the United Nations’ health agency. Two potential Bundibugyo vaccines are in the early stages of clinical trials on people, while a third is being worked on to get it to that stage.

Several previous Ebola outbreaks have also been declared weeks or months late, including the 2014-2016 West Africa outbreak. That was declared in March 2014, although the first human case was later found to have occurred in December 2013.

Stalled for months, the peace process in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo appears to be gaining momentum.

The Rwandan-backed M23 rebel group has accepted 15 prisoners released by the government in Kinshasa. The handover is part of a framework agreement signed last year, after talks mediated by Qatar.

It may be a small step, but it could pave the way to ending the fighting in the eastern DRC. Previous attempts have failed to bring peace to the region.

Could this mechanism address the core issues of the long-running conflict?

Presenter: Per Nyberg

Guests:
Kambale Musavuli – Analyst at the Center for Research on the Congo-Kinshasa

Felix Ndahinda – Researcher on the Great Lakes region, specialising in conflict resolution, peace and transitional justice

Abdulla Al Etaibi – Assistant Professor in International Affairs at Qatar University

ICRC facilitates first known transfer of detainees between Congolese government and M23 rebels in North Kivu.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has released 15 prisoners and handed them over to rebels from ⁠the Congo River Alliance/March 23 movement (AFC/M23) in the east of the country.

The release was announced by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which facilitated this first known transfer of prisoners under last year’s Qatar-mediated deal to end the fighting in the region.

The handover happened on Thursday and Friday after months of talks thrashing out the names of detainees to be freed.

An ICRC statement said the 15 prisoners agreed to be transferred before leaving the government-held eastern Congolese city of Beni in a convoy on Thursday evening.

The journey continued through Uganda before the convoy arrived in Rutshuru Territory in DRC’s North Kivu province, where the prisoners were ⁠⁠handed over to AFC/M23 on Friday, the statement added.

M23 seized the regional capitals in North and South Kivu from the Congolese government’s control in early 2025.

Stephanie Eller, head of ICRC operations in the capital ‌Kinshasa, said she hoped the transfer would pave the way for more releases.

“We hope that this ⁠operation will help bring relief ⁠to families who have been separated from their loved ones for a long time,” Eller said.

The release of detainees was one of the conditions in the Qatari-mediated agreement signed by the Congolese government and AFC/M23 in September.

Qatar welcomed the releases on Friday.

“The release of the detained persons represents an important step towards enhancing confidence between the parties and creating favourable conditions for further progress towards reaching peaceful and sustainable solutions,” Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

It added that Qatar “expresses its hope that this step will serve as an impetus for further measures that enhance confidence-building between the parties and meet the aspirations of the Congolese people for peace, development and prosperity”.

DRC, the United Nations and Western powers have repeatedly accused neighbouring Rwanda of supporting the M23 with its ‌own ‌troops and weapons as the armed group has advanced in the east, a charge Rwanda denies.

Bunia, Democratic Republic of the Congo – As Ebola cases continue to emerge in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Virunga National Park – Africa’s oldest – is strengthening health measures to protect communities and the endangered mountain gorillas living in it.

The measures are part of the park’s emergency response after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the Ebola outbreak in the DRC and neighbouring Uganda a Public Health Emergency of International Concern in May.

“It is a terrible disease and one that poses a threat first and foremost to human populations. Protected areas such as Virunga National Park are vast natural spaces where there are no human populations. They act as barriers to the spread of the disease,” Emmanuel de Merode, director-general of Virunga National Park, told Al Jazeera.

Virunga previously supported efforts to contain the DRC’s 10th Ebola outbreak between 2018 and 2020, which killed nearly 2,300 people in North Kivu and Ituri provinces. De Merode believes the park can again contribute to slowing transmission during the country’s 17th outbreak, which has killed more than 1,400 people, according to Congolese health authorities.

Rangers and health workers join the response

The park has established six health checkpoints within and around its territory, a 300km (186-mile) stretch of protected forest that park officials describe as a natural barrier across North Kivu. It has also deployed 40 paramedics alongside 80 rangers as part of an initial six-month emergency response.

De Merode told Al Jazeera the checkpoints on roads crossing the park allow authorities to monitor movement through the protected area.

“We are setting up checkpoints, which act as roadblocks, together with health units for handwashing and temperature screening, and a first-level isolation centre next to each checkpoint,” he said.

In Ituri province, the epicentre of the outbreak, checkpoints north and south of Bunia, the provincial capital, are screening travellers arriving from areas affected by Ebola.

“We have supported the health service with protective equipment, body bags, thermometers and vehicles because, when the disease first broke out, the health services faced real difficulties, particularly in North Kivu,” de Merode said.

Virunga, a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Site since 1980, is located in a region that has experienced more than two decades of armed conflict. More than 800 rangers protect the park, which is home to a number of the world’s most threatened species.

A wider role in the Ebola response

De Merode said experience from previous outbreaks has strengthened cooperation between Virunga and Congolese health authorities, particularly in surveillance and early detection.

Reflecting on the 2018-2020 Ebola response, he said members of the outbreak response committee considered Virunga an important factor in limiting the spread of the virus.

“The response committee at the time noted that the fact the disease never widely spread to Goma or to other parts of the country was also due to Virunga National Park, which was considered a major factor in preventing the disease from spreading southwards or eastwards,” he said.

De Merode stressed that Virunga remains only one part of a wider response led by Congolese health authorities and supported by technical and financial partners.

“All the information collected at our checkpoints is immediately transmitted to the Congolese National Institute of Public Health for follow-up,” he said.

In Ituri province, three checkpoints managed by the Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation within Virunga are screening travellers arriving from areas most exposed to Ebola.

Park officials say two suspected cases have been identified at the checkpoints and referred to public health authorities for monitoring.

“If, unfortunately, cases do arise beyond the checkpoint, we are able to trace them and all the contacts who were travelling with them, and this enables us to monitor any potential cases that may be on the move,” de Merode said.

The threat to the world’s remaining mountain gorillas

Mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei) are among Virunga National Park’s most iconic species. Classified as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), their population is estimated at just above 1,000 across the Greater Virunga Landscape, which spans the DRC, Rwanda and Uganda.

The DRC is home to a significant share of the world’s remaining mountain gorillas, with Virunga protecting one of the last populations of these great apes.

Eddy Syaluha, a veterinarian with Gorilla Doctors, a conservation organisation working to protect the health of great apes in the DRC, Rwanda and Uganda, told Al Jazeera that the close biological relationship between humans and mountain gorillas makes them vulnerable to diseases carried by people.

“Mountain gorillas share more than 90 percent of their DNA with humans, which means they are susceptible to many of the same infectious diseases, including Ebola and respiratory illnesses,” he said.

Syaluha said the risks underline the importance of a One Health approach, which recognises that human, animal and environmental health are interconnected.

Keeping Ebola away from the forest

Despite repeated Ebola outbreaks in the region over the past five decades, Syaluha said no mountain gorilla has ever been infected with the virus in Virunga National Park or elsewhere in the DRC.

He said conservation teams continue to monitor gorilla health and screen visitors to reduce the risk of human-to-animal transmission. Previous Ebola outbreaks have shown the devastating impact the virus can have on great apes, with some studies documenting mortality rates above 90 percent among western lowland gorilla populations in Central Africa.

Syaluha said the close relationship between humans and great apes makes prevention and surveillance essential to keeping Ebola away from Virunga’s gorillas.

“We are doing everything we can to ensure that what happened in other countries does not happen to our gorillas here,” he said.

“We are focusing primarily on preventive measures centred on humans to prevent transmission to our gorillas. We regularly monitor the health of our gorillas to remain on high alert.”

Officials declare the outbreak the fastest spreading ever, warning the world to ‘pay much more attention’.

More than 3,500 people have been infected with the Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), making it the world’s second largest outbreak on record.

Confirmed cases have reached 3,532, the DRC Ministry of Communication and Media said in a statement on Friday. The data show that the current outbreak has surpassed the country’s 10th on record, which ran from August 2018 to June 2020 and saw roughly 3,470 cases recorded.

“It’s the fastest spreading Ebola epidemic that we have ever seen,” Carl Skau, acting head of the United Nations World Food Programme, told the Reuters news agency. “The world needs to pay much more attention.”

A total of 1,556 people have died from the virus, bringing the case fatality rate to 44.1 percent, data compiled by the Ministry of Public Health showed.

A reported 807 patients remain in isolation or hospital while 626 have recovered.

Less than three months since the outbreak began, the disease has killed five times as many people as previous outbreaks had by the same stage, according to Africa’s top public health agency, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).

The latest figures indicated that only the 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa was bigger with 28,616 cases and 11,310 deaths recorded across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

The DRC outbreak is caused by the rare Bundibugyo strain of the Ebola virus, which has no approved vaccine or treatment.

Medical personnel are also battling a lack of security and attacks on health facilities across the eastern DRC, where dozens of armed groups operate, while contending with significant foreign aid cuts that have stretched resources.

A lack of trust in authorities and education among the population is also creating hurdles to bringing the outbreak under control.

Angele Gapio, head of emergencies for the Caritas charity in the northeastern city of Bunia, said awareness campaigns were failing and front-line responders were exhausted.

“The disease has now settled in the community,” she told the Reuters news agency. “People continue to seek treatment from traditional healers, and the chain of transmission continues.”

The WHO said this month that the true scale of the outbreak could be up to four times higher than official figures suggest.

The Africa CDC said in June that it would require $1.4bn to contain the outbreak, three times its earlier estimate.

The virus has affected five provinces across the DRC: Haut-Uele, Ituri, North Kivu, South Kivu and Tshopo.

There’s still no vaccine for the Bundibugyo strain of the virus as the country struggles for control in infected areas.

The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has killed more than 1,500 people, as the spread of the virus continues to outpace response efforts, new statistics have revealed.

DRC has now recorded 3,442 cases of the virus and 1,521 deaths, a government update said on Thursday. The data marks a 50 percent increase in the death toll over the past week, with authorities continuing to struggle to rein in the outbreak in the east of the country, where decades of conflict with rebel groups have left government control and infrastructure lax or absent.

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said that the sharp rise since last week partly reflects a backlog of cases and deaths that had not yet been confirmed or recorded.

The lack of a proven vaccine for Bundibugyo, which is the rarest of the four variants of Ebola known to affect humans, and the fact the epidemic is unfolding in an area of active hostilities between armed groups, producing a shortage of public health resources, has helped to allow the virus to spread “like wildfire”, a public health consultant who helped establish Africa CDC told Al Jazeera earlier this month.

Africa CDC added that delays in contact tracing, difficulties accessing affected areas, and mistrust from communities have hindered an effective response.

The outbreak is mostly concentrated in eastern Congo’s remote Ituri province, which accounts for nearly 90 percent of cases, but five other provinces have confirmed cases, including one of the country’s largest cities, Kisangani.

Neighbouring Uganda declared itself free of Ebola on Tuesday following the discharge of the country’s last patient in mid-June.

Africa CDC Director-General Dr Jean Kaseya said 63 percent of confirmed deaths in the last two weeks occurred outside treatment centres.

This is largely due to the “unsafe handling of infected bodies” by residents, including touching the remains of the deceased, whose bodies remain highly infectious.

Earlier this month, some healthcare workers in Ituri went on strike over unpaid wages and unsafe working conditions, which has also impeded efforts to hold back the disease’s rapid spread.

In Ituri’s Nyakunde health zone, international partners supporting the Ebola response had to temporarily relocate after a July 15 attack on a hospital and a treatment centre, prompted by a patient’s death. Officials said this disrupted surveillance, contact tracing and supplies.

Despite the accelerated death toll in DRC, the World Health Organization has said the risk of a global spread remains low because Ebola does not travel through the air, making it much harder to spread than respiratory viruses.

Cases detected outside the DRC have so far been quickly identified and contained without leading to sustained transmission, the agency said.

Health minister urges people in the country ‘to remain alert’ and continue observing public health measures.

Authorities in Uganda have declared the country free of Ebola, as infections from the viral haemorrhagic disease continue to surge in neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Ugandan Health ⁠Minister Chris Baryomunsi on Tuesday announced the “successful completion ⁠of the mandatory 42-day monitoring period which begun after the discharge of the last Ugandan national, a locally transmitted patient, on the 16 of June, 2026”.

“Throughout this ⁠period the Ministry of Health maintained intensive surveillance nationwide, and no new Ebola cases have been detected,” Baryomunsi said.

In a later statement on social media, Baryomunsi urged Ugandans “to remain alert” and continue observing public health measures.

Of the 20 confirmed ⁠cases, 18 were discharged while two died from the viral haemorrhagic disease, both of whom ⁠were from the DRC, where a much larger outbreak has been under way since mid-May.

According to the Congolese Ministry of Health, there have been at least 3,262 infections in the DRC, with 1,437 people killed. This is nearly the same as the 2018-2020 outbreak that is the largest ever recorded in the country.

The World Health Organization says the latest Ebola outbreak is the fastest spreading ever recorded, and that its true scale could be two to four times larger than reported data.

The virus strain spreading in the DRC is Bundibugyo, which is the rarest of the four variants of Ebola known to affect humans and currently has no approved vaccines or treatments.

Ebola is a viral haemorrhagic disease that can cause fever, vomiting, diarrhoea and internal bleeding. It spreads through direct contact with the bodily fluids of people who are sick with the virus or who have died from it.

Nairobi, Kenya – The death toll from the latest Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has surged above 1,309, an extraordinary rise of more than 40 percent in just five days, government figures show, as a leading public health consultant says the virus is “spreading like a wildfire”.

Updated data released by the government on Saturday showed that as of Thursday, the total number of confirmed cases, including deaths, had climbed to 2,973. This was a 27 percent rise from the figure last Saturday.

The unprecedented rate at which cases are increasing and deaths are mounting has made the DRC epidemic the fastest-spreading Ebola outbreak ever documented.

Compounding the danger, the virus spreading in the DRC is Bundibugyo, which is the rarest of the four variants of Ebola known to affect humans and currently has no approved vaccines or treatments.

Abdulsalami Nasidi, a public health consultant who helped establish the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), the African Union’s public health agency, told Al Jazeera the lack of a proven vaccine meant the virus was “spreading like a wildfire.”

Nasidi said the epidemic was unfolding in an area of active hostilities, compounding the shortage of public health resources common to African governments confronting outbreaks.

Scientists are racing to find a way to slow the epidemic, and the University of Oxford’s Oxford Vaccine Group said a volunteer had received the first dose of a rapidly developed experimental vaccine on Friday.

“This is an important milestone for the trial, and marks the next phase in our multinational collaborative journey to develop a Bundibugyo ebolavirus vaccine,” said the Oxford team’s chief investigator, Katrina Pollock.

The largest and deadliest Ebola outbreak in history killed more than 11,000 people out of at least 28,000 cases between 2013 and 2016, primarily in West Africa across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

That outbreak took about eight months to reach the first 1,000 deaths. The latest epidemic in the DRC has done so in less than 10 weeks.

“We must act now,” Africa CDC Director-General Jean Kaseya wrote in a post on X last week. “If we do not stop it today, this will become the worst outbreak the world has ever documented.”

Al Jazeera’s Alain Uaykani, reporting from the DRC city of Goma, said the government’s response had lacked coordination and urgency, leaving medical personnel overstretched and working in poor conditions.

He said the death toll among health workers continued to climb on Saturday, with a doctor and a health worker among the latest victims.

More than 100 health workers have been infected since the outbreak was declared in May, and around 35 have died, a toll compounded by shortages of protective equipment and, in some communities, hostility from residents who question whether the disease is real.

An increasing number of healthcare workers at several medical facilities in the northeastern province of Ituri, the epicentre of the outbreak, have gone on strike over unpaid wages and unsafe working conditions.

Last week, dozens of workers at Rwampara General Hospital near Bunia went on strike. The hospital operates a major Ebola treatment centre, parts of which were set ablaze in May by angry residents who also chased after health workers fleeing in trucks.

The latest strike began on Saturday at the Elikya Ebola Treatment Centre in the provincial capital of Bunia. Activities were largely paralysed as doctors, nurses and security staff stopped work.

Approximately 100 workers held a protest outside the centre, saying unpaid bonuses were undermining morale and disrupting patient care.

“We need to be paid, because in the meantime the disease is spreading at the treatment centre,” Martin Bolombi, one of the striking workers, told The Associated Press. “I’ve already had five people die who are still inside there. A solution must be found for us,”

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has warned that the true number of cases could be more than double the official count, as insecurity continues to restrict access to affected communities.

Contact tracing now reaches roughly 80 percent of known contacts, he said, but response teams still cannot reach every village or deploy where they are needed most.

The United States and Canada have both restricted entry for travellers who have recently been in the DRC, measures that run counter to the WHO’s own guidance issued in May, when it declared the outbreak a global health emergency.

Tedros has called for a ceasefire in the conflict gripping eastern DRC, arguing that medical resources alone are not enough to tackle the crisis, and political action is needed to open up access for responders before the virus takes hold in provinces not yet affected.

According to WHO figures, 999 people have died in DRC and two in Uganda due to the Bundibugyo strain of the virus.

Nearly 1,000 people have died from Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the country’s health ministry says.

DRC’s National Institute of Public Health said on Wednesday that 999 deaths have been confirmed since the outbreak of the Bundibugyo strain of the virus began in May.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), two people have also died from the virus in neighbouring Uganda.

DRC’s Health Ministry said that as of Monday, 2,473 cases had been recorded in the latest outbreak. At least 737 patients are currently in isolation and hospitals, it added.

The DRC outbreak was declared on May 15 after several deaths were recorded in the northeastern province of Ituri, where cases remain concentrated. Several cases linked to the DRC’s outbreak were then reported in Uganda.

This outbreak has killed more people at a quicker rate than any Ebola outbreak on record, including the 2013-2016 outbreak that is considered the worst on record with over 11,000 deaths out of at least 28,000 cases. That outbreak took about eight months to reach 1,000 deaths.

Last week, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that the current outbreak had over the past month “expanded faster than any previous outbreak” of the virus.

Cases of Ebola, which spread through close contact and infected bodily fluids, have also been found in other Congolese provinces outside of Ituri.

‘We must act now’

The WHO’s incident manager for the Bundibugyo strain, Thierno Balde, told reporters on Tuesday that despite plans to ramp up responses to the virus, “the outbreak remains ahead of us and we are still in a phase of catching up”.

Currently, there are no approved vaccines or treatment for the Bundibugyo strain.

Separately, on Tuesday, the head of Africa’s Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) also said the outbreak was “escalating at an alarming pace”.

“We must act now. If we do not stop it today, this will become the worst outbreak the world has ever documented,” Africa CDC Director-General Jean Kaseya said in a post on X.

“This is not the time for delay. We must mobilise every available resource, strengthen the response on the ground and stop this outbreak before more lives are lost.”

Kaseya also separately told a conference on Tuesday that he had written to US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr and asked him to lift Ebola-related travel restrictions on Uganda since the country has not reported any new infections in about a month.

Uganda’s last Ebola patient was discharged on July 16, beginning a 42-day countdown after which it can be declared free of the virus, according to WHO guidelines.

But the US is restricting entry for all travellers who were recently in DRC and some travellers who recently visited Uganda or South Sudan.

Uganda ⁠discharges last-remaining patient, as WHO says Ebola has ‘expanded faster than any previous outbreak’ in DRC.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that Ebola is spreading in the Democratic Republic of Congo more quickly than in any previous outbreak.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters on Thursday that the Ebola outbreak in the DRC in 2018-2020 “took more than 10 months to reach 2,000 confirmed cases”. But this time more than 2,000 cases were confirmed in only two months, including 796 deaths.

“It is now the third-largest Ebola outbreak on record,” Tedros said. “In the past month, it has expanded faster than any previous outbreak.”

The DRC reported 62 new cases on Thursday, increasing its total number of confirmed infections to 2,073, though the ⁠⁠WHO has said the ⁠⁠true tally could be at least double that.

The DRC’s 17th Ebola outbreak was declared on May 15 after several deaths in Ituri, the mineral-rich northeastern province patrolled by several armed groups.

Cases of Ebola, which spreads through close contact and infected bodily fluids, have so far been found in five DRC provinces and neighbouring Uganda, though the vast majority are in Ituri.

The WHO chief highlighted that over 80 percent of new cases were being detected “outside known contact lists, showing that transmission chains are still being missed”.

He added that 377 people have recovered from Ebola in the DRC, “showing that with early diagnosis and safe care, this disease can be survived and stopped”.

To compound problems in Ituri, healthcare workers began a strike and blocked the entrance to Bunia General Hospital on Wednesday. Staff said they had not received any compensation for their work since the outbreak began, despite working under extremely difficult conditions.

In Uganda, things were looking up as its last remaining Ebola patient was discharged on Thursday, starting a 42-day countdown after which it can ⁠⁠be declared Ebola-free, said the East African nation’s health ministry.

Uganda had 20 cases of the rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebola since mid-May. Fifteen were people infected in the DRC who then travelled to Uganda.

Unlike the surging number of infections in DRC, Uganda has not reported a new case since June 22 .

“Today, Uganda has discharged the last Ebola patient, a Congolese national who has successfully recovered and [is] ⁠⁠ready to be with his family,” Uganda’s health ministry posted on X.

“Uganda starts ‌‌counting down. If 42 days pass without a single new case, WHO guidelines stipulate ‌‌that we will be declared Ebola-free.”

Walkout over late payments comes as public health officials confirm that the virus has reached two more provinces.

Staff at a hospital treating Ebola patients in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have gone on strike, alleging they have not been paid for months, bringing the facility to a standstill.

Dozens of employees at Rwampara General Hospital in Ituri province, the epicentre of the outbreak, walked off the job on Monday. The strike action came as authorities revealed that the virus has spread to two further provinces in northern DRC.

The striking workers included epidemiologists, case investigators, drivers and gravediggers.

“We don’t know how it is possible to not have been paid for two months,” Bahati Claude, a health worker at the centre, told The Associated Press.

The outbreak, concentrated in northern DRC, is the worst in Africa’s history and has already caused severe economic damage, pushing nearly one million people into poverty, according to the United Nations.

Efforts to hold back the spread of the virus have been complicated by the presence of paramilitary rebels, who control parts of the region in a bid to access its valuable mineral deposits.

The response to the outbreak has also been complicated by misinformation, deeply rooted burial practices and a lack of trust in health officials.

Health workers have been attacked by communities that believe the disease is a form of witchcraft, while bereaved families have ignored safety protocols by holding traditional burial ceremonies.

DRC’s National Public Health Institute confirmed on Sunday that the virus has spread to two new northeastern provinces: Haut-Uele and Tshopo.

The World Health Organization has warned that an accelerated response from local, national and international partners is urgently needed to bring the outbreak under control.

DRC Health Minister Roger Kamba said last week that the government was working to resolve the payroll issues and ensure employees were paid.

“We must ensure that these payments reach the right people,” Kamba said. “We have faced a few challenges, notably changes to the lists, which have led to complaints from people saying they are not being paid even though they are working. We have the means to sort this out.”

According to the latest figures, the number of Ebola cases in the DRC has risen to 1,926, with 702 deaths. The spread of the disease to Haut-Uele and Tshopo means five provinces now have confirmed Ebola cases.

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) has warned that the situation is worsening in areas already affected as transmission accelerates, while the risk of the disease spreading to neighbouring South Sudan is increasing as the outbreak expands into new areas.

Meanwhile, a second United States citizen infected with Ebola was admitted to a special isolation unit at Frankfurt University Hospital in Germany on Monday. Timo Wolf, head of the special isolation unit, said the patient’s condition was “currently stable”.

The man, who is in his 60s, was confirmed to have contracted the disease on Friday while working for a Christian aid group in the DRC.

The number of deaths comes as healthcare workers threaten to walk off the job over a delay in payments.

At least 600 people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have died from Ebola, as the number of confirmed cases of the illness rose to 1,759, according to government data.

The total numbers, released on Wednesday, were confirmed as of Tuesday, while 51 new cases and 20 deaths were recorded in the previous 24 hours.

The total of those infected does not include two cases of illness reported in Kisangani, the capital of the Tshopo province and one of the DRC’s biggest cities, as the test results were being validated, the government’s report said. They will be included in the official case total once confirmed.

One of those two cases is linked to the village of Nia-Nia in the Ituri province, where the first illnesses were reported. But the second illness “does not appear to have a geographic link” beyond Kisangani, according to the government.

As the situation worsens, healthcare workers in the Ituri province, the hardest-hit of the country’s three eastern regions affected by the outbreak, are walking off their jobs to protest against delay in payments.

In an official notice to national and provincial authorities over the weekend, front-line workers in Ituri threatened to strike if they were not paid in 24 hours. By Tuesday, some had already stopped working, although no official strike has been declared, The Associated Press news agency reported.

Some of the health professionals and other front-line workers told AP they had not been paid wages or bonuses since the Ebola outbreak was declared on May 15. They also said they were working with limited gear and treated unfairly by authorities and response teams.

“Since the Ebola virus disease outbreak was declared, we’ve been demanding payment for our work,” Dr Biensi Kano, a member of the epidemiological surveillance committee in Ituri’s capital, Bunia, told AP.

The strike comes at the start of the enrolment for clinical trials for the treatment of the Bundibugyo virus, which is responsible for this outbreak. The Bundibugyo strain of Ebola is generally considered less deadly than some others, but there is no approved vaccine.

By the time the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern in May, the virus had already been spreading undetected for weeks through the mining towns of Mongbwalu, Rwampara and Bunia, before reaching neighbouring provinces, Al Jazeera’s Catherine Wambua-Soi reported from the DRC earlier this month.

A dead whale weighing about 12 tonnes has been recovered from the beaches of Muanda after washing ashore on the Atlantic coast.
Officials used a 42-tonne crane to remove it following two days of unsuccessful attempts with tractors and other lifting equipment, as large crowds gathered to watch the operation.

Democratic Republic of Congo fans erupted in celebration after their team secured a historic place in the World Cup knockout stage with victory over Uzbekistan. The Leopards will now face England in the Round of 32, their first-ever appearance beyond the group stage.

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.

Aid cuts and poor sanitation are deepening fears that Ebola is spreading through displacement camps.

Seventeen medics have died from Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) as the death toll surpasses 200 in an outbreak tearing through a health system already weakened by years of conflict, displacement and chronic underfunding.

A senior World Health Organization (WHO) official confirmed the death toll on Friday and said that 75 healthcare workers had contracted the virus since Congolese authorities declared the outbreak on May 15 .

“The outbreak remains serious” and is “evolving so fast”, said WHO emergency director Marie Roseline Belizaire.

“It is a really high price that the system, the healthcare system, is paying, because we don’t have enough of healthcare workers in DRC,” she told reporters by video link from the outbreak epicentre in eastern DRC.

Health officials believe the rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebola had been spreading for months before the government formally announced the outbreak, leaving doctors, nurses and other medical staff exposed before they knew the virus was present.

Even now, basic protective equipment remains in short supply, with some facilities struggling to secure gloves, masks and other essentials needed to limit infection.

The DRC has one of the world’s lowest ratios of healthcare workers to population, with about 11 health workers for every 10,000 people, according to WHO data. Belizaire said China and Uganda were sending medical teams to support the response.

She added that the WHO was providing psychological support to medics who feared treating patients after seeing colleagues fall sick.

“When they are explaining to you how they live it, how they were infected … [it] can break your heart.”

Outbreak yet to reach its peak

Congolese authorities said on Thursday that the outbreak has killed 232 people and infected 896 others across 31 health zones in the country.

African Union member states have pledged nearly $1bn to respond to the emergency in eastern DRC and neighbouring Uganda, which has confirmed 19 cases and two deaths.

Health officials warn that the outbreak has not yet reached its peak.

The crisis is also raising alarm in camps for displaced people, where overcrowding, poor sanitation and resistance to testing could allow the virus to spread undetected.

At least 30 people have died since early May in Kigonze camp in Bunia in Ituri province, the epicentre of the outbreak. Camp officials described the death rate as unprecedented.

Authorities could not confirm the causes of death because patients and relatives had refused testing of both the living and the dead until Thursday, according to a camp spokesperson and aid organisation Caritas.

But witnesses and aid sources told Reuters that the dead had symptoms linked to Ebola, including headaches, fever and vomiting.

“People didn’t just die like this before,” camp spokesperson Desire Grodya Bapi told Reuters.

Kigonze is home to more than 15,000 people. The rising number of deaths there has increased fears that Ebola may be spreading among the more than five million displaced people in eastern DRC.

Aid workers say funding cuts have made the emergency more dangerous. Donors, including the United States under President Donald Trump, have reduced support for water, hygiene, and sanitation programmes, which are vital in fighting the disease spread through bodily fluids.

UN data shows funding for toilets and handwashing stations in DRC more than halved between 2024 and 2025, falling to about $38m. This year’s $80m appeal is only 21 percent funded.

DRC has hundreds of displacement camps, some housing up to 100,000 people. Ebola deaths have already been recorded in another camp in Ituri province, which accounts for more than 90 percent of nearly 900 confirmed cases.

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 outbreak caused by the rare Bundibugyo virus strain has reached 782 confirmed cases.

The number of confirmed cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)’s Ebola outbreak has surged to 782, with 178 deaths, marking one of the largest daily jumps so far as regional conflict, patient escapes, and limited contact tracing undermine containment efforts.

The Ministry of Public Health confirmed 72 new cases on Sunday over the previous 24 hours, a record single-day increase, with 29 additional deaths.

The Bundibugyo virus strain has a 22.8 percent death rate so far, with 40 patients recovering, officials said.

“We remain committed to supporting affected countries until transmission is stopped. We call on partners and donors to urgently mobilise resources to strengthen the response and save lives,” Jean Kaseya, director general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, said on Sunday.

The outbreak stems from the rare Bundibugyo strain, which has no approved vaccine or treatment, unlike the Zaire virus responsible for the DRC’s previous 16 Ebola outbreaks.

Contact tracing coverage has plummeted to 56.5 percent, a sharp decline from the 95% target, Health Ministry officials said.

Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, warned that “no one knows the true scale” of the outbreak due to dangerous gaps in surveillance and testing.

Eastern Ituri province remains the outbreak’s epicentre, harbouring nearly 95 percent of all confirmed cases. The virus has since breached into North Kivu and South Kivu provinces and spread across the border to Uganda.

Ituri’s humanitarian crisis exacerbates the medical emergency. Nearly one million residents have fled overlapping armed conflicts involving multiple groups, including the M23 rebel movement that controls Goma, the capital of North Kivu province. The area has endured decades of instability, with United Nations reports documenting massacres of more than 100 civilians in gold-rich Ituri villages as various factions vie for control of the region’s mineral wealth.

Thousands of artisanal miners routinely shuttle between clandestine mining sites scattered across the mineral-dense region, creating transmission hotspots that evade health monitoring. The outbreak is believed to have originated in the mining-intensive Mongbwalu Health Zone in Ituri province.

The World Health Organization announced it is ramping up diagnostic testing and contact surveillance operations. However, MSF reports a critical funding gap of $21.5m hampering response efforts.

Africa’s performance at World Cups peaked at Qatar 2022 when Morocco became the first side from the continent to reach the semifinal stage.

Even their quarterfinal appearance was noteworthy – the Atlas Lions were only the fourth African nation to get there.

Although Cameroon, Senegal and Ghana are the three other African teams to reach the quarterfinals, North Africa has dominated the continent’s success overall at the World Cup and at the Africa Cup of Nations.

Egypt are the record seven-time winners of AFCON, while three of the top five African qualifiers for World Cup finals are Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria.

Al Jazeera breaks down the chances of the sub-Saharan nations looking to outshine their neighbours from the north at the tournament which kicks off on June 11:

SENEGAL

World Cup Appearances: Four – 2002, 2018, 2022 and 2026
Best finish: Quarterfinals
Overall record: P12 W5 D3 L4 F16 A17
FIFA ranking: 14
Prediction: Eliminated at quarterfinal stage

Senegal head to World Cup 2026 with a burning sense of injustice firing their campaign. The Lions of Teranga were stripped of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) title by the Confederation of African Football (CAF), which decided the mid-game walk-off by the Senegalese players and staff voided January’s final – which was later awarded to Morocco, along with the trophy, as a 3-0 win.

In 2002, Senegal upset the odds and reached the ⁠quarter-finals in their World Cup debut at the tournament co-hosted by Japan and South Korea.

More than two decades later, expectations are running high – perhaps carrying the greatest expectation on all African teams, including Morocco.

The depth of the 26-man squad is seen as their greatest strength over continental neighbours, but their star power is also envied by rivals.

Sadio Mane remains the country’s greatest export. Although midfield kingpin Pape Gueye, goalkeeper Edouard Mendy and captain Kalidou Koulibaly would grace almost any side at the tournament.

All three are French-born and another shot at the two-time winners of the competition is in their sights.

A 1-0 win against then defending champions France at the 2002 edition announced Senegal as a rising footballing powerhouse. Their first Group ⁠I encounter this time around is against Didier Deschamps side in New York on June 16.

“It’s always a pleasure to play against France. It’s a country we know well,” said Senegal coach Pape Bouna Thiaw, who moved to France aged 17.

“If I lose even a second of my belief that I can win the World Cup with Senegal, I will step down,” he added.

Senegal’s group is completed by Iraq and Norway.

GHANA

World Cup Appearances: Five – 2006, 2010, 2014, 2022 and 2026
Best finish: Quarterfinals
Overall record: P15 W5 D3 L7 F18 A23
FIFA ranking: 74
Prediction: Eliminated at quarterfinal stage

Ghana have only missed one World Cup since their 2006 debut.

Four years after their global bow they became the third African side to reach the quarterfinal stage at Germany 2010.

Their run-up to this tournament has not been smooth, with a late change of coach as veteran Portuguese Carlos ⁠Queiroz replaced Otto Addo following a run of poor results.

The German-born former Ghana international led his nation at Qatar 2022, but the ⁠failure to qualify for the last AFCON and comprehensive losses in their four high-profile games in November and March saw him fired in early April.

It will be a fifth successive World Cup for the 73-year-old Queiroz, whose past African experience has been with South Africa and Egypt, and who managed Real Madrid, and was Alex Ferguson’s right-hand man at Manchester United.

Group L, against Panama, England and Croatia, appears to be the ‘group of death’ in the opening stage of the competition, but with Manchester City’s Antoine Semenyo leading a strong attack, Ghana will fully expect to progress.

“I think that this country has a huge, enormous potential. This is a country of footballers,” Queiroz said.

The Black Stars will, however, be without the injured Tottenham forward Mohammed Kudus, who has become the team’s talisman and key factor in their last two successful qualifying campaigns.

IVORY COAST

World Cup Appearances: Four – 2006, 2010, 2014 and 2026
Best finish: Group Stage
Overall record: P9 W3 D1 L5 F13 A14
FIFA ranking: 34
Prediction: Eliminated at quarterfinal stage

The Ivory Coast return to the global stage after a 12-year absence – one that was hard-felt following the retirement of some of their greatest players in Yaya Toure and Didier Drogba.

It has been a long rebuild for the Ivorians, but they have won two AFCON titles since their last World Cup appearance.

Their youthful attack led by teenager attacker Yan Diomande, alongside Simon Adingra and Amad Diallo of ⁠Manchester United, will be key to their chances.

When hosting AFCON two years ago, Ivory Coast were nearly eliminated in the group stage, but they promoted Emerse Fae from assistant manager for their final game of the opening phase and went on to win the title.

“I believe Ivory Coast has the potential to achieve something exceptional – why not aim for the final?” Fae said ahead of the tournament, that will begin with matches against Curacao, Ecuador and former world champions Germany.

CAPE VERDE

World Cup Appearances: One – 2026
Best finish: NA
Overall record: NA
FIFA ranking: 69
Prediction: Eliminated at group stage

One of the debutants, Cape Verde – with a population of about ⁠600,000 – is the third ⁠smallest nation to qualify in the tournament’s long history.

They only debuted at AFCON in 2013, but did go on to reach the quarterfinals – a feat repeated in 2023.

The task before them now – which will be led by their diaspora of players in the main – is daunting, with Uruguay, Saudi Arabia and European champions Spain, lying in wait in the group stage.

“We’ve always been aware of our talent but ‌we haven’t always believed that it could take us much further than we had achieved up to that point,” said manager Bubista, named African Coach of the Year in 2025.

“Therefore, it took courage to face any opponent. The first step in our success was truly believing in our potential. In other words, we changed the players’ mindset.”

SOUTH AFRICA

World Cup Appearances: Four – 1998, 2002, 2010 and 2026
Best finish: Group stage
Overall record: P9 W2 D4 L3 F11 A16
FIFA ranking: 60
Prediction: Eliminated at round of 32 stage

After a burgeoning beginning to their return to the international fold, with qualification for the 1998 World Cup, South Africa’s fortunes have taken a downtown in the last 16 years.

A first appearance in the finals since 2010 feels long overdue for a nation hoping to reap the rewards of strong domestic growth as they head to North America.

South African ‌club Mamelodi Sundowns are the newly crowned African Champions League winners and eight of their players are in Bafana Bafana’s squad. There are also ⁠eight players from Orlando Pirates – the domestic league champions, who pipped Sundowns to the title by a point.

“We can say that we have players of the best teams of the season. Those guys have much experience at a high level,” South Africa’s Belgian-born coach Hugo Broos said of his 26-man selection.

“I’m certainly happy that Sundowns won the Champions League, because I was afraid that if they should lose, I would get players who would be very ⁠disappointed. So now they all have that boost of confidence, and that ⁠helps a lot.”

South Africa are in the other so-called ‘group of death’ as they take on Czech Republic, South Korea and co-hosts Mexico, who they face in the opening game of the tournament

DR CONGO

World Cup Appearances: Two – 1974 and 2026
Best finish: Group stage
Overall record: P3 W0 D0 L3 F0 A14
FIFA ranking: 46
Prediction: Eliminated at quarterfinal stage

DRC’s only previous appearance was when it was still known as Zaire, competing at the 1974 finals in West ⁠Germany – the first African side from south of the Sahara to go to the World Cup.

As reigning continental champions, their 9-0 thumping by Yugoslavia did little to raise the flag for Africa at the time.

Much has changed since then for the continent and in its second-largest country. The Congolese players will arrive in North America with a FIFA ranking that outstrips three of the other five sub-Saharan qualifiers.

It did take two playoffs to reach this edition – the African legs saw the Congolese eliminate Cameroon and Nigeria, before edging Jamaica in extra time in their intercontinental playoff

Most of the squad are European-born, either in Belgium, France or Switzerland, plus the London-born Aaron Wan-Bissaka, previously called up by England but who missed out on a cap through injury.

“We ‌are ‌extremely proud because a whole generation hasn’t been able to see its national team in the World Cup but now they will see them there,” said their French coach, Sebastien Desabre.