DR Congo Ebola cases rise amid distrust, armed conflict zone

A significant story is unfolding on the international scene. Africa DR Congo Ebola cases rise amid distrust, armed conflict zone Updated May 24, 20261:18 PM ET Originally published May 24, 20261:18 PM ET By Emmet Livingstone Red Cross workers bury an Ebola victim at the Rwampara Cemetery, in Rwampara, Congo, May 23, 2026. Moses Sawasawa/AP hide caption toggle caption Moses Sawasawa/AP KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo—Health workers in the Democratic Republic of Congo are scrambling to contain an outbreak of Ebola virus, which is suspected to have killed more than 200 people and risks spreading across international borders. According to Congolese government figures released on Saturday, health workers have registered 867 suspected cases of Ebola and 204 deaths.

The Congolese government first declared an outbreak on May 15. Since then, confirmed and suspected cases have popped up across an area of Congo larger than the state of Florida. Neighboring Uganda has also registered five confirmed Ebola cases.

The Details

On Friday, the World Health Organization raised its risk level for the disease at a national level to "very high. " Sponsor Message "The potential of this virus spreading rapidly is high, very high, and that changed the whole dynamic," Abdirahman Mahamud, WHO director of health emergency alert and response operations, told reporters. Ebola is a viral disease that causes vomiting, fever and sometimes bleeding.

It can take weeks to show symptoms and is often fatal. Congolese health workers, UN staff and aid organizations rapidly launched a large-scale response against the disease after an outbreak was confirmed. But Ebola was likely spreading for weeks — if not months, according to some estimates — before health authorities noticed it.

This late diagnosis and the now unknown number of people who are infected will severely complicate the response. The first known case was of a nurse who presented symptoms on April 24, in the city of Bunia, in Ituri province, in eastern Congo. According to an internal report by the Congolese health ministry, the nurse was buried in the gold-mining town of Mongbwalu, in Ituri.

What Experts Say

The town had had a spate of unexplained deaths throughout April, including of four health workers who died in the space of a single week. The report noted that there was "widespread panic among the population, fueled by rumors of supernatural causes" for the deaths. Sponsor Message Three Red Cross volunteers working in the region have also died from suspected Ebola after reportedly handling infected bodies, the organization said.

Delays in identifying the Ebola outbreak were caused in part by the rarer species of the virus that is circulating. Congo has had 17 official Ebola outbreaks since 1979, with the majority of those caused by the Zaire species of the virus — for which there is a vaccine. But the latest outbreak is caused by a much less-studied species named Bundibugyo, according to Congo's National Institute for Biomedical Research.

The story has become one of the most prominent items on the global agenda.