In an update, the UN Senior Ebola Response Coordinator, Julien Harneis, stressed that more people are being killed by Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) fighters than by Ebola disease caused by Bundibugyo virus in recent days.
And yet attacks on “tens of villages” across the south of Ituri and North Kivu provinces go “unnoticed”, Mr. Harneis maintained. “People are scared, people are furious at the lack of action on this…following up contact tracing in areas where ADF operating is a very hazardous idea.”
Up to 500 infections per week
Echoing that message, the UN World Health Organization (WHO)’s Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, Executive Director of WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme, said that despite much progress in containing transmission within eastern DRC, about 400 to 500 cases of infection are still being identified every week.
This trend is linked to the emergence of cases in rural and hard-to-reach areas.
In more positive developments, the WHO official noted that prevention efforts have led to “a significant reduction” in transmission in previous hotspots, in particular Bunia, Mongbwalu, Rampara and Nizi, all in Ituri province in eastern DRC.
Nonetheless, the violent unrest across the vast area impacted by Ebola creates huge challenges for responders.
“We’ve seen so many attacks on healthcare, attacks on communities as well, attacks on people providing care, and people losing their lives, nurses in burials,” Dr Ihekweazu explained. “So, we need to keep working with the community, and this is very important. And working with the specific groups instigating these attacks.”
Disease threats in addition to attacks
Communities are already facing outbreaks of diseases, malnutrition and displacement driven by decades of violent unrest fuelled by dozens of armed groups that remain active in the resource-rich region.
Earlier this week, WHO condemned attacks against frontline healthcare workers and community awareness officers, including in Cantine-Aloya in North Kivu that killed 66 civilians including three health workers. Three health facilities were also looted.
Two weeks ago, a nurse was also killed and another health worker badly injured when they were attacked while responding to an Ebola alert in Tshopo province.
Tedros appeal
Other attacks have included an arson attempt on a treatment centre and stones thrown at a vehicle used for conducting safe and dignified burials, an indication of the need to continue to build trust with extremely vulnerable communities.
“We cannot focus only on Ebola. Some people in the affected communities have said told me personally that Ebola is a lesser evil compared to some of the other threats they face,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stressed earlier this week.
A massive humanitarian emergency
The DRC Ebola outbreak was declared in May and has since become the country’s largest yet as it continues to spread faster than any previous outbreak across the vast east and northeast provinces.
To date, more than 11,000 cases have been confirmed and more than 5,000 people have died.
In a related development, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) warned that nearly 29 million people in the DRC face acute food insecurity, with most in the conflict and Ebola-affected eastern and northeastern provinces. That number is likely to continue to increase, said Jean-Martin Bauer, WFP Director of Food Security and Nutrition Analysis.
Briefing journalists via video in Geneva, Mr. Bauer stressed that conflict is driving the hunger crisis, in addition to the Ebola outbreak.
“What we need right now is access, and we need resources to avoid the situation becoming more difficult in the DRC,” he said.
Hunger emergency
Latest UN-backed food insecurity expert assessments indicate that between January and June 2027, 30.3 million people will be in crisis levels of acute food insecurity or worse, with 4.2 million of this number experiencing “emergency levels” of hunger and the most acute needs in North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri provinces “driven by persistent conflict and large-scale displacement”.
Mr. Bauer noted that Ebola is just one of many disease outbreaks in DRC, but that it is compounding the hunger crisis for communities already struggling to eat.
“Families are being displaced, they’re being cut off from their farms, from their livelihoods,” he explained. “Food prices are rising, making affording a meal quite complicated for too many households.”
