More than 500 people have died in the Ebola outbreak sweeping the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to World Health Organization figures released Monday. Since the outbreak was declared on 15 May in mineral-rich Ituri province in the country's volatile east, there have been 1,561 confirmed cases and 506 confirmed deaths — a case fatality rate of 32 percent. A further 354 suspected cases remain under investigation, and 254 patients have recovered. Two deaths have also been recorded in neighbouring Uganda, where 20 confirmed cases have been reported and the situation is described as more stable.

The outbreak is driven by the rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, for which no approved vaccines or treatments currently exist. Clinical trials evaluating the monoclonal antibody MBP134 and the antiviral drug remdesivir — both alone and in combination — began last Thursday, offering some cautious hope. A second treatment centre has also opened in North Kivu, one of three provinces affected, to ease pressure on overstretched health facilities. Yet frontline workers in Ituri issued a 24-hour strike notice on Sunday, warning they would walk out unless authorities paid outstanding benefits, improved working conditions, and provided adequate protective equipment. The workers also cited poor base salaries, what they described as the "arrogance" of teams dispatched from the capital Kinshasa, and an over-reliance on staff from other provinces rather than local personnel.

The humanitarian picture is made significantly worse by the intersection of the epidemic with an active armed conflict. Since early 2025, eastern DRC has been engulfed in renewed fighting between government forces and the M23 rebel movement, displacing an estimated 5.77 million people — the majority in Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu, the same provinces at the heart of the outbreak. In the Kigonze displacement camp on the outskirts of Bunia, Ituri's provincial capital, roughly 15,000 people who have fled armed groups now face a second threat. "We fled bullets to save our children. Today we watch them die from a disease we do not understand," one resident told reporters, asking not to be named. UN officials confirmed two Ebola deaths at Kigonze on 2 July, though camp administrators say the true toll may be far higher, with at least 30 deaths recorded since May.

Deep community distrust is hampering the response as much as logistical constraints. In a region shaped by years of violence and institutional mistrust, rumours have spread — including unfounded claims of a deliberate "biological attack" — leading families to hide sick relatives rather than bring them to treatment centres. On 30 June, a health facility in Bafwabango was set ablaze by protesters after a dispute over the body of an Ebola victim whose family wished to bury him according to local custom; one person was killed and another wounded. Armed groups also control many roads, forcing epidemiological teams to wait days before reaching affected villages — time during which contacts continue to move and transmission risk grows.

The milestone comes as WHO member states reconvene to finalise a global pandemic agreement intended to prevent a repeat of the international disarray seen during Covid-19. "The next pandemic will not wait for us to be ready," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned on Monday. "The Ebola outbreak still unfolding in the DRC right now is proof of that. Ebola may not be the next pandemic. But it is a reminder — a painful one — that the threat never truly goes away."