WHO chief arrives in Congo as Ebola outbreak spreads in Ituri
Border closures and armed groups complicate containment, vaccine trials discussed while no approved treatment exists for Bundibugyo strain
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A deacon helps a parishioner wash his hands to limit the spread of Ebola in Bunia. Photograph: Glody Murhabazi/AFP/Getty
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Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus speaks to reporters in Kinshasa. Photograph: Arsene Mpiana/Reuters
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A man hangs an Ebola awareness banner in the Kigonze camp in Bunia. Photograph: Glody Murhabazi/AFP/Getty Images
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Workers load WHO emergency supplies on to a UN plane in Nairobi, Kenya, as aid is rushed to eastern DRC. Photograph: Andrew Kasuku/AP
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World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus arrived in Kinshasa as the agency tries to contain a fast-growing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, The Guardian reports. Tedros was due to travel on to Ituri province, where the outbreak is centred, after the WHO recorded more than 1,000 confirmed and suspected cases since the epidemic was declared in mid-May.
The numbers being published are already framed as incomplete. The WHO warned the true scale may be larger because the virus was believed to have circulated undetected for some time. This is the DRC’s 17th recorded Ebola epidemic since the disease was first identified there in 1976, a repetition that has turned emergency response into a standing capability — and a standing cost.
This outbreak is driven by the Bundibugyo strain, which the WHO says has no approved treatment. Advisory groups have recommended clinical trials of vaccines and treatments, and the head of the African Union’s health agency said a vaccine could be ready by the end of the year, according to The Guardian. In the meantime, containment relies on the basics: tracing contacts, isolating the sick, and moving supplies into areas where armed groups contest authority.
Ituri sits in a mineral-rich part of eastern Congo where insecurity shapes everything from staffing to transport. Tedros appealed to warring parties to declare a ceasefire to help contain the outbreak, a request that underlines what epidemiology cannot substitute for: access and enforcement. The UN refugee agency says more than 245,000 people have fled eastern DRC to neighbouring countries since early 2025, adding cross-border movement to a disease that spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids.
Neighbouring states are already reacting. Uganda, which has recorded cases linked to the outbreak, announced it would close its border with the DRC. The WHO warned border closures can push people into informal crossings and make monitoring harder — a familiar trade-off between visible action and measurable control.
On the logistics side, workers loaded WHO emergency supplies onto a UN plane in Nairobi to rush aid to eastern Congo, The Guardian reports. The same piece notes Kenya’s high court temporarily suspended plans to establish a quarantine and treatment facility for affected US citizens in Kenya, a reminder that outbreak policy can be litigated far from the outbreak itself.
Tedros said the epidemic “can be stopped”. He arrived in Kinshasa as the region’s borders began to close.