The World Health Organization has declared the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo a "public health emergency of international concern" — its highest alert level short of a pandemic emergency — after more than 300 suspected cases and at least 88 deaths were recorded across the DRC and neighbouring Uganda. The outbreak, centred in Ituri, a gold-rich province in eastern DRC that borders Uganda and South Sudan, has since spread to Goma, the largest city in eastern Congo, and a laboratory-confirmed case has been reported in Kinshasa, the capital, some 1,000 kilometres from the epicentre. WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stressed that the situation does not yet meet the criteria of a pandemic emergency and advised against closing international borders, but warned that major uncertainties remain about the true scale of infections and their geographic reach.

The outbreak involves the Bundibugyo strain of the Ebola virus, a rare variant first identified in 2007 in western Uganda. Unlike the more common Zaire strain — against which approved vaccines and treatments exist — Bundibugyo has no licensed vaccine or specific antiviral therapy, and its fatality rate can reach 50%. Genomic sequencing carried out at the National Institute of Biomedical Research in Kinshasa confirmed that this 2026 outbreak is not linked to previous Bundibugyo outbreaks in 2007 or 2012, indicating a fresh transmission from animals to humans. Professor Jean-Jacques Muyembe-Tamfum, co-discoverer of the Ebola virus and head of the institute, said bats are the primary suspect reservoir, noting that bat consumption is common in the region. He added that candidate vaccines for the Bundibugyo strain were expected to enter clinical trials by late May or June. The outbreak's scale had already grown alarmingly before it was formally identified: by the time health authorities were first alerted through social media on 5 May, 50 people had already died. Early field tests calibrated for the Zaire strain had missed the Bundibugyo variant, allowing the virus to spread undetected for weeks.

Containment is being severely hampered by the conditions on the ground. Ituri has long been the site of a brutal conflict between militia groups, which has killed more than 50,000 people since 1999 and left health infrastructure severely weakened. Residents describe hospitals overwhelmed and patients dying at home, with families handling bodies without protective measures — a key route of transmission. A large open-casket funeral procession in mid-April is believed to have triggered a cascade of deaths in Mongbwalu, a mining town at the heart of the outbreak. Cases have now spread through a highly mobile population that includes mine workers, traders and displaced people, reaching Butembo in North Kivu province and a new cluster in Nyankunde in Ituri, where an American doctor working for a humanitarian organisation is among the infected. The United States has begun evacuating exposed citizens to Germany and announced a ban on travellers from affected areas.

The international response is scaling up rapidly. Congo's health minister, Samuel-Roger Kamba, has overseen the establishment of treatment centres in Bunia, Rwampara and Mongbwalu, with 59 patients receiving active care as of this week. The WHO has deployed 35 experts and airlifted seven tonnes of emergency supplies to Bunia, with additional equipment en route from Nairobi. Médecins Sans Frontières has described the situation as "extremely concerning" and is preparing a large-scale response. Without an approved vaccine, authorities are relying on proven public health measures: isolation, contact tracing, safe burials and infection-control protocols — the same approach that brought a smaller Bundibugyo outbreak in Isiro, also in eastern DRC, under control in 2012.

For residents of Ituri, the human toll compounds years of hardship. "We live in a region where poverty is rife and people live from hand to mouth," said one resident of Irumu territory. "When a health emergency like this one strikes, it hits us hard economically." Aid organisations warn that the outbreak is arriving at a moment when eastern Congo's health systems and communities are already at breaking point after decades of conflict and recent cuts to international humanitarian funding. With cases now confirmed in two countries and reaching major urban centres with international transport links, health officials say the coming weeks will be decisive in determining whether the outbreak can be brought under control.