DR Congo Ebola cases rise amid distrust, armed conflict zone

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. 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 Congole...