DRC facing ‘catastrophic collision’ of Ebola and war, WHO chief warns

The World Health Organization chief has warned that the conflict raging in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was dramatically complicating efforts to rein in an Ebola outbreak.

“Eastern DRC now faces a catastrophic collision of disease and conflict with the Ebola outbreak in Ituri province outpacing the response,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X on Wednesday.

So far, the global health watchdog has recorded at least 10 confirmed Ebola deaths and 220 suspected deaths in the country since mid-May. The organisation has also recorded 900 suspected cases since the DRC declared the outbreak on May 15.

The United Nations health agency said the true spread of the virus was probably much wider.

Tedros said that the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola that is spreading in the DRC had “no approved vaccine nor treatment”. “Stopping this Ebola transmission depends entirely on humanitarian access,” he said.

The security situation in the eastern DRC, plagued by conflict involving a litany of armed groups for three decades, is a huge obstacle in outreach. State services in rural areas of Ituri province have been largely absent for decades.

“Ongoing clashes are driving mass displacement, pushing exposed contacts into overcrowded camps and severing critical containment corridors. Frontline workers are risking everything, while attacks on health facilities make tracking cases and their contacts nearly impossible,” the WHO chief wrote in the statement.

“We cannot build community trust or isolate the sick while bombs are falling,” Tedros insisted. “We urge all warring parties to agree to an immediate ceasefire to contain this outbreak. To allow us safe and sustained access for medical teams. We plea to prioritise human survival above everything else.”

Earlier, health authorities warned that the outbreak is continuing to spread in parts of Africa, with neighbouring countries also affected.

Ten countries, including Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, South Sudan, and Zambia, face the risk of an Ebola outbreak, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

The WHO has also warned that while the risk of global spread remains low, the situation is being closely monitored due to the number of cases, infections among healthcare workers, and outbreaks in urban areas