WHO declares Congo Ebola outbreak emergency amid conflict and deaths

Ebola has reappeared in eastern Congo with a dangerous twist: the outbreak in Ituri Province is being driven by the rare Bundibugyo virus, and it is unfolding in an area already shaped by insecurity and mobility problems. By May 16, health authorities had reported 246 suspected cases and 80 deaths, including suspected community deaths, with clusters of severe illness centered in the Mongbwalu and Rwampara health zones.

Laboratory tests confirmed Bundibugyo virus in 8 of 13 samples collected from suspected cases, turning a local emergency into a wider international alarm. The World Health Organization said the strain is especially hard to stop because there are no approved Bundibugyo-virus-specific therapeutics or vaccines, unlike for Ebola-Zaire strains that have benefited from more advanced tools. In practice, that leaves investigators and frontline teams with fewer ways to break chains of transmission once the virus begins moving through communities.

WHO Director-General Dr. Mohamed Janabi declared on May 16 that the event constituted a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, a step that reflects both the severity of the outbreak and the risk that it could spread beyond Congo’s borders. WHO and Congo’s national and provincial authorities activated emergency coordination mechanisms, sent rapid response teams and began scaling up surveillance, contact tracing, treatment and infection-prevention measures. Within 72 hours of the May 15 declaration, WHO had delivered 11.5 tonnes of medical supplies and equipment to support the response.

The challenge in Ituri is not only the virus itself. Conflict complicates almost every part of outbreak control, from finding suspected cases to reaching families in insecure areas and keeping contact lists current as people move. Suspected community deaths are especially difficult to investigate quickly, and the inability to move freely can slow the kind of field work that makes Ebola containment possible. Congo has extensive experience responding to Ebola, but the country is facing its 16th outbreak since the disease was identified in 1976, a reminder that repeated exposure has not eliminated the operational hurdles that come with violence and weak access.

The outbreak also has regional implications. Congo’s most recent prior outbreak was in 2022 in Beni, North Kivu Province, and an earlier Bundibugyo outbreak in western Uganda in 2007 caused 131 cases and 42 deaths. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said no U.S. cases had been confirmed as of May 19, 2026, and that the risk to the U.S. public remained low, but both CDC and WHO stressed that fast, coordinated support is essential to contain the virus in Congo and prevent it from spilling farther across the region.