The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday confirmed a new Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's remote Ituri province, reporting 246 suspected cases and 65 deaths concentrated in the Mongwalu and Rwampara health zones. Preliminary laboratory tests have detected the Ebola virus in 13 of 20 samples, the agency said, and four deaths have so far been recorded among laboratory-confirmed cases.
The declaration lands roughly five months after Congo's previous Ebola outbreak was declared over, that one having killed 43 people. It is the 17th outbreak the country has recorded since the virus was first identified there in 1976, and the latest to surface in the country's mineral-rich, conflict-ridden east, where vaccination and contact tracing depend on roads, fuel and security that the central government does not reliably control.
Where it is
Ituri sits in northeastern Congo, more than 620 miles from the capital Kinshasa, on the border with Uganda and South Sudan. Africa CDC said suspected cases have also been reported in Bunia, the provincial capital, pending confirmation. The agency cited mining-related mobility in Mongwalu, one of the two epicenter health zones, as one of the factors that could accelerate spread.
The agency listed four reasons the outbreak could spread quickly: intense population movement, mining-related mobility in Mongwalu, insecurity in the affected areas, and gaps in contact listing. It also cited the proximity of the affected zones to Uganda and South Sudan as a regional concern.
The response
Africa CDC said it was convening an urgent high-level coordination meeting Friday with health authorities from Congo, Uganda and South Sudan, along with United Nations agencies and other partner countries. The meeting, the agency said in a statement, "will focus on immediate response priorities, cross-border coordination, surveillance, laboratory support, infection prevention and control, risk communication, safe and dignified burials, and resource mobilization."
Neither Africa CDC nor the World Health Organization had publicly identified the Ebola species in the new outbreak or detailed vaccine deployment plans as of Friday. During the previous Ituri outbreak last year, which lasted three months, WHO initially struggled to deliver vaccines because of access and funding constraints, according to CBS News.
Security overhang
The outbreak surfaces in a province already under sustained attack. Last week, armed rebels killed at least 69 people in Ituri, Al Jazeera reported. The Allied Democratic Forces, an ISIS-linked group, has staged repeated mass killings there, while the broader east remains gripped by the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel offensive that began in January 2025 and has captured several major cities. Al Jazeera reported that security risks make efforts to control such outbreaks highly challenging, with the eastern DRC plagued for decades by armed groups seeking control of the mineral-rich region.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the State Department had not publicly responded by press time.