On 15 May 2026, an Ebola outbreak was officially declared in north-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the country’s 17th since the virus was first identified there in 1976. The rare Bundibugyo strain has left health workers struggling without approved vaccines or treatments.
The strain at the centre of the outbreak is what makes this one particularly difficult to control.
The Bundibugyo species of Ebola has not been seen for more than a decade and has caused only two previous outbreaks - in Uganda in 2007 and DR Congo in 2012 - when it killed about a third of those infected. Although less deadly than other Ebola species, the rarity of Bundibugyo means there are fewer tools available to contain it.
The first known case was a nurse who developed symptoms and died on 24 April in Bunia, the provincial capital of Ituri. The body was repatriated to Mongbwalu, one of two gold-mining towns where the majority of cases have been reported.
A critical factor in the early spread was that the initial symptoms of Ebola - fever, headache, vomiting and diarrhoea - resemble common illnesses such as malaria and typhoid, which are widespread in DR Congo. People did not initially realise it was Ebola. By the time the outbreak was officially declared, it had already spread across multiple health zones.
There is no approved vaccine for Bundibugyo and no drugs that specifically target it, making the outbreak harder to treat. Two candidate vaccines are in development, but neither has undergone clinical trials.
WHO adviser Dr Vasee Moorthy said one, which would be the equivalent of the only currently available Ebola vaccine, itself effective only against the Zaire strain, would likely take six to nine months to be ready. A second candidate, based on the same platform as the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, is being manufactured, but Moorthy cautioned there was "a lot of uncertainty" and that it would depend on animal trial results before it could be considered a promising candidate.
In the absence of specific treatments, care relies on symptom management and intensive supportive therapy, including fluid replacement, oxygen support and close monitoring.
PCR tests require virus-specific diagnostic kits, which are currently available in insufficient quantities for the Bundibugyo virus, considerably slowing case confirmation as well as contact tracing and patient isolation.
Local health workers say some facilities are becoming overwhelmed. Although personal protective equipment has started to arrive, staff say they are still operating without adequate protection. MSF emergency programme manager Trish Newport described health facilities reporting they were full of suspected cases with no space remaining.
“This gives you a vision of how crazy it is right now,” she told AFP.
Response efforts are being hampered in eastern DR Congo by deep distrust of outside authorities within local communities. Two treatment centres were set on fire in the conflict-hit region, where intense fighting has displaced more than 100,000 people.
WHO’s director of emergency response for Africa, Marie Roseline Belizaire, said the attacks were linked to misinformation campaigns circulating on social media, significantly slowing case investigations and limiting healthcare teams’ access to affected communities.
Strict protocols surrounding the burial of suspected Ebola victims have also fuelled anger. Funeral wakes involving more than 50 people have been banned in north-eastern DR Congo, while armed soldiers and police have guarded burials carried out by health workers.
The military governor of Ituri province, the epicentre of the outbreak, likened the effort to contain the virus to a “war” for which authorities lacked sufficient resources, noting that existing capacity had already been drained by armed conflict.
Ituri has been under military rule since 2021, when civilian authority was replaced in an attempt to neutralise dozens of armed groups, including the Allied Democratic Forces, which is affiliated with the Islamic State group.
The governor called for qualified personnel and secure treatment centres, warning that “the more time we lose, the closer we come to disaster.”
The conditions in displacement camps in the affected region are compounding the outbreak. At Kigonze camp, supervisor Richard Mbagaro says more than 5,000 people are sheltering there, but that safety measures are not being followed.
People are not wearing face masks or taking other protective measures. Basic hygiene is breaking down: residents are cleaning jerrycans with ash, but ash is becoming scarce because they cannot afford coal. One displaced person, named Kubamalaki, said there was no soap to wash hands with. "We are in the midst of an epidemic, but we don't even have soap.
If we don't get help, we're all going to die here." A teacher, Chantal Dheve, described her own exposure in front of children who had no face masks. "We just endure it," she said. "That's the problem."
WHO director-general Tedros Ghebreyesus confirmed there were more than 900 suspected cases and 220 suspected deaths, with the outbreak spreading faster than health workers can contain it. Cases have been confirmed in DR Congo’s North and South Kivu provinces and in Uganda, where seven cases have been recorded.
Africa CDC director-general Dr Jean Kaseya said health ministers from DR Congo, Uganda and South Sudan had agreed on a $319 million budget to halt the spread, but only 10 per cent of the funding had so far been secured from affected countries.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa pledged an initial $5 million, while the U.K. government announced up to £20 million to fund frontline health workers, infection control and disease surveillance.
Africa CDC has warned that nine further countries - Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Zambia - are also at risk.
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