Ebola outbreak in Congo spreads, deaths rise amid crisis

Ebola is moving through eastern Congo’s fragile health system with no licensed vaccine or specific treatment for the Bundibugyo strain, and the death toll has climbed as insecurity and population movement complicate the response. By June 6, the World Health Organization said the Democratic Republic of the Congo had recorded 515 confirmed cases and 91 deaths, with the outbreak concentrated in Ituri Province. By June 19, the count had reached at least 956 confirmed cases and 247 deaths in Congo, with alarm rising over transmission in a displacement camp in Bunia.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo Ministry of Public Health declared the outbreak on May 15 after laboratory confirmation from samples collected in Ituri Province. Two days later, the World Health Organization said the outbreak in Congo and Uganda constituted a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. The agency said this was Congo’s 17th Ebola outbreak since the virus was first identified in 1976, a reminder of how often the country has been forced to confront the disease with limited margin for error.

The outbreak had spread across 25 health zones in Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu by June 6, with Ituri accounting for 94% of confirmed cases. WHO said six people had recovered in Congo and two in Uganda as of June 3, and later reported 12 recoveries in Congo alone by June 6. The agency also said treatment centers had been expanded in Bunia and nearby areas, but contact tracing and surveillance still needed to be strengthened.

That gap has become part of the crisis. WHO said the outbreak is unfolding amid humanitarian collapse, insecurity, dense population movement, and cross-border trade and mining flows, conditions that make contact tracing harder and raise the risk of spillover beyond Congo’s borders. The Joint response plan launched by WHO and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention for June through November 2026 seeks $518 million to help prepare for, detect and respond to the outbreak across affected countries.

Aid cuts from Washington have sharpened the accountability question. U.S. reductions to foreign assistance, including the dismantling of USAID and cuts to related health support, have hampered surveillance, infection control and early detection, leaving some frontline workers short of basic protective gear. In a region where every missed case can ignite a new chain of transmission, the savings are immediate, but the cost of a larger international health emergency could be far greater.