The Ebola outbreak spreading across the Democratic Republic of Congo and neighbouring Uganda has passed a grim milestone, with more than 630 confirmed infections and over 120 deaths recorded as of early June 2026. The DRC, a vast country in central Africa that has battled multiple Ebola outbreaks over recent decades, remains the epicentre, reporting 589 confirmed cases — with 45 new infections detected in a single 24-hour period. Uganda, which shares a long and porous border with the DRC, has recorded 19 cases, all linked to travellers from across that border. In a sign of cautious optimism for Uganda, President Yoweri Museveni told the nation this week that no new cases had been reported in five days. "The fire of Ebola has started going down," he said, urging citizens to remain vigilant. The World Health Organization, which has classified the outbreak as an international public health emergency, nonetheless warns that Uganda's risk remains high.

The outbreak involves the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, a less common variant for which no approved vaccine or targeted treatment currently exists — a stark contrast to more recent outbreaks caused by the Zaire strain, for which effective vaccines were developed. Health officials warn that the true scale of infections is almost certainly larger than confirmed figures suggest. On the ground in Ituri province, one of the worst-affected areas, Dutch missionary doctor Mark Godeschalk described a system under severe strain. Rural health posts lack isolation rooms, ambulances are scarce, and some patients have died at small clinics before they could be transferred to treatment centres. "There are patients dying for lack of transport," he said. Healthcare workers — some of whom treated patients for weeks before the outbreak was officially declared on 15 May — have also paid a heavy price, with at least three known to have died in Ituri province alone. The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has flagged additional obstacles: many facilities lack clean water, protective equipment and functioning incinerators, while some health workers remain unpaid.

Misinformation and community mistrust are compounding the crisis. Rumours spreading through WhatsApp groups and social media have fuelled resistance to health teams, including attacks on burial crews. Fear drives some patients to hide their symptoms or arrive at treatment centres only in the final stages of illness, when survival chances are sharply reduced. Dr Godeschalk, who has worked in Ituri since 2018 and has built relationships with local church leaders and community chiefs, argues that long-established local trust is essential to effective outbreak response — and that it cannot be quickly replicated by outside teams.

The dismantling of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under the current U.S. administration has drawn sharp criticism from global health experts. Jeremy Konyndyk, who led USAID's disaster response during the 2014 West Africa outbreak — which ultimately killed more than 11,000 people — warned that the U.S. has lost the institutional capacity to mount the kind of coordinated, large-scale response that helped contain previous outbreaks. "The capabilities that we had at USAID to mount that kind of a large, complex, whole-of-government response — that's simply gone," he said. He noted that daily case counts in Bunia, Ituri's provincial capital and a major urban centre, are approaching the levels seen when the 2014 outbreak began to spiral out of control. The U.S. withdrawal from the WHO has also been cited as a further complication, given that past outbreaks were contained through close U.S.-WHO partnership. Meanwhile, the U.S. has called on European nations, including Belgium, to tighten entry restrictions on travellers from the DRC and Uganda ahead of the FIFA World Cup it is co-hosting. Belgium has declined, saying it will follow WHO and European health agency guidance and rely instead on screening and preparedness protocols.

Health authorities say the coming weeks will be decisive. Africa CDC has outlined immediate priorities including stronger contact tracing, improved infection prevention, safe burial practices and the rapid deployment of response teams to high-risk areas. With cases rising, logistics faltering and international coordination fractured, officials are emphatic that a unified global response is not optional — it is the only way to prevent the outbreak from becoming one of the deadliest in Ebola's history.