The head of the World Health Organisation has warned that the Ebola outbreak in Congo is ‘spreading rapidly’ and now poses a ‘very high’ risk at the national level.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the UN health agency was revising upward to ‘very high’ its assessment of the risk within Congo, which had previously been deemed as high.
The risk remains high for regional spread and low at global levels, he told reporters.
The WHO chief noted that 82 cases have been confirmed in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with seven confirmed deaths, ‘but we know the epidemic in DRC is much larger.’
He said there are now almost 750 suspected cases and 177 suspected deaths. The situation in neighbouring Uganda is ‘stable’ with two cases confirmed in people who had travelled from Congo, with one death.
Earlier on Friday, the United Nations said it released $60 million from its Central Emergency Response Fund to accelerate the response in Congo and in the region.
The US has pledged $23 million in funding to bolster the response in Congo and Uganda, and said it would also fund the establishment of up to 50 Ebola treatment clinics in the affected regions of Congo and Uganda.
Ugandan authorities said they were not aware of any treatment centres being set up by the US.
Congo has seen a wave of fear, anger and confusion over the deadly outbreak wash over the country, with rioters burning down hospital tents.
Health workers wearing protective suits disinfect a room where a patient had died inside an isolation ward at the General Referral Hospital during the Ebola outbreak response on May 21, 2026 in the Democratic Republic of Congo
Medical staff wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) bury a patient deceased at the hospital in Rwampara on May 21, 2026
The hastily arranged burials of the victims suspected to have been killed by the viral haemorrhagic fever have been met with suspicion in a conflict-ridden part of the country already distrustful of the state.
With tensions running high, the military has been deployed to provide security for funerals.
Tents used to isolate Ebola patients at Rwampara hospital, in the northeastern Ituri province at the outbreak’s epicentre, were torched in the riot on Thursday, which ended swiftly after the army stepped in. Only the tents’ charred husks remain.
‘It all kicked off when a 24-year-old man, the son of a soldier, died at the hospital,’ an official at the medical institution said.
‘The family wanted us to hand over his body so that they can bury him, but given the circumstances, that’s impossible,’ the official added.
Besides being extremely deadly, Ebola is transmitted through prolonged physical contact and bodily fluids.
There is no vaccine or treatment for the Bundibugyo strain responsible for the 17th Ebola outbreak to hit the vast central African country, which the World Health Organization believes has already killed more than 177 people.
So attempts to tackle the latest spread have been forced to rely mainly on precautions and rapid contact tracing.
Health workers wearing protective equipment walk near a disinfected mattress from inside an Ebola victim’s room outside the General Referral Hospital during the Ebola outbreak response on May 21, 2026 in the Democratic Republic of Congo
Flames and smoke rise from an Ebola treatment center in Rwampara, Congo, Thursday, May 21, 2026
But in rural parts of the DRC, ‘loved ones are throwing themselves at the bodies, touching the corpses and the clothes of the deceased, while organising mourning rituals bringing together loads of people,’ said Jean Marie Ezadri, a civil society leader in Ituri.
‘Unfortunately, this is going on even during this epidemic, which explains the many instances of contamination.’
More to follow.
