The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed Friday that a new Ebola outbreak is underway in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s eastern Ituri province, where health workers have so far logged 246 suspected infections and 65 deaths. The cases and fatalities have been recorded mainly in the Mongwalu and Rwampara health zones, and the agency said four of the deaths have been verified in a laboratory.
The announcement from Kinshasa came as Uganda reported its first imported Ebola death — a Congolese man who was admitted to a hospital in Kampala three days before he died and tested posthumously for the virus. Uganda’s Health Ministry said the man was infected with the Bundibugyo virus, a variant long endemic in Uganda. The ministry added that all contacts linked to the patient have been quarantined and the body has been returned to Congo.
World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters that the WHO dispatched a team to Congo last week. Initial samples did not test positive for Ebola, he said, but a new analysis on Thursday did. “Congo has ‘a strong track record in Ebola response and control,’ Tedros said, adding that the WHO is releasing $500,000 to aid Congo’s response.”
Scientists are still working to identify the precise viral strain driving the current outbreak. Africa CDC said early results suggest a variant other than the Ebola Zaire strain, the type most common in Congo’s past surges, and that sequencing is continuing. That distinction carries immediate practical weight: Congo has a stockpile of treatments and roughly 2,000 doses of the Ervebo vaccine, but health authorities note the shot is effective only against the Ebola Zaire strain — not against the Sudan virus or the Bundibugyo virus responsible for the imported Ugandan case.
Ituri province sits in a remote eastern stretch of Congo more than 1,000 kilometers from the capital, marked by poor road networks, armed-group activity, and intense population movement driven by mining in Mongwalu. Africa CDC said those conditions, combined with gaps in contact listing and control efforts, are heightening the risk of further spread. The agency also flagged the proximity of affected areas to Uganda and South Sudan and convened an urgent coordination meeting Friday with health authorities from all three countries and with partners including United Nations agencies.
The acting head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, said Friday that American health officials are in contact with their counterparts in Congo and Uganda and “going to provide whatever they need and that we are capable of providing them.”
Congo has now weathered 17 Ebola outbreaks since the disease first surfaced there in 1976. An eastern eruption that ran from 2018 to 2020 killed more than 1,000 people, and the West African epidemic of 2014–2016 claimed more than 11,000 lives. The previous outbreak in Congo ended roughly five months ago after 43 deaths.
Dr. Gabriel Nsakala, a professor of public health who has worked on past Ebola responses in Congo, said the country and its frontline health workers possess deep experience and existing laboratory infrastructure. Yet he underscored a familiar bottleneck. “In terms of training, people already know what they can do,” Nsakala said. “Now, the expertise and equipment need to be delivered quickly.”