The deadly Ebola virus outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC, DR Congo) continues to spread across the vast country, despite some success in containing it. Aid officials renewed their call for international support on Tuesday to help responders on the ground. While there has been progress in some places, aid agencies warn that cases continue to rise exponentially in other locations.
“If we don’t have the resources, the epidemic will come back [ …] it remains a deadly and massive epidemic,” stressed Julien Harneis, United Nations Special Ebola Coordinator, speaking to reporters in Geneva on Tuesday.
The Ebola outbreak has now affected seven provinces in DRC. As of Sunday, health authorities had reported over 7,200 confirmed cases and more than 3,500 deaths across 62 health zones. The true toll is likely higher due to gaps in surveillance and case detection.
A vast geographic spread and severe funding shortages
The virus outbreak is now "covering a vast geographic area," said Olivier le Polain, head of the Epidemiology and Analytics for Response Unit at the World Health Organization (WHO).
“Although the response has been unprecedented in its scale, the epidemic continues to expand.”
Since the emergency was declared in mid-May, UN agencies and non-governmental partners have been assisting the Congolese authorities in tackling the Ebola Bundibugyo virus outbreak. However, immense challenges are involved in working in resource-rich regions where populations have experienced decades of violent insecurity and development setbacks.
“[In] many areas, the roads are massive potholes – not even potholes – trucks disappear into the mud; [in] many areas, the access, even by small plane, is complicated. And then there’s violence against the response,” explained Harneis.
“We have cases in Bunia, in Ituri and in the far other end of the country in Sud-Ubangi, that is like a distance from Geneva to Dublin.”
The veteran aid coordinator warned that the 2026 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan is only 49 percent funded, while Ebola "makes things much worse for all Congolese," from worsening hunger levels to falling attendance at health centers, increases in maternal mortality and interrupted treatment for people living with HIV/AIDS.
“We’ve done a lot of positive work through the scaling up bed capacity, but unless we get more specialized medical care, we will eventually come to a plateau,” Harneis continued, stressing the need for countries to deploy international emergency medical teams immediately.
Ebola coordinator calls for the immediate deployment of international emergency medical teams
“If you don't provide the care, if you don’t finance the care, if you don't provide the technical resources, then Ebola is a live enemy and will come back at us,” he warned, adding that another $1 billion will be needed to sustain the response beyond the first six months.
“There’s been some indication from member states that they might be prepared to send those teams, but we need a far greater support and dedication of those resources.”
The Ebola outbreak continues to unfold in areas of great humanitarian need and will take “many, many months to get this outbreak under control fully”, insisted WHO’s le Polain.
While national authorities have noted encouraging signs in six health zones that have gone more than 42 days without reporting a new Ebola case and in four others that have gone more than 21 days without reporting new infections, cases are still rising exponentially in other areas. For example, the number of weekly cases in North Kivu Province has now doubled from about 100 to 200.
“We’re worried about particularly Butembo and Katwa”, a major axis in the northern part of North Kivu, the WHO official explained.
In other provinces, the situation “remains mixed”, with no new confirmed case in South Kivu since the end of May.
“We had one recent case now in a new province, in South Ubangi, that will require a specific response and that response is being set up right now,” le Polain said.
MSF warns of serious risk as outbreak spreads to new areas
On Wednesday, Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders, MSF) also warned that the race to contain the Ebola outbreak is far from over. Although some indicators, such as a decline in patient admissions and slower transmission rates, may suggest that the outbreak is easing, MSF teams have observed a concerning trend:
Cases are emerging and spreading into new, underprepared areas, and basic response measures are still lacking in the original hotspots. This makes containment efforts increasingly challenging.
"Assuming the outbreak is under control because some Ebola Treatment Centers are admitting fewer patients would be a mistake," says Anthony Kergosien, MSF Emergency Coordinator in DRC.
"In Ituri, the original epicenter, the spread is indeed slowing down for now. But nationally, the number of new cases has not fallen."
Kergosien stressed that the outbreak is not shrinking but moving.
“South Ubangi has become the seventh affected province, while North Kivu now accounts for nearly half of all newly confirmed cases, with test positivity rising sharply in recent days,” he said.
"While undetected chains of transmission are already taking hold in the main operational hubs, the spread of the outbreak into new areas with even weaker preparedness and response capacities poses a serious risk."
The largest Ebola outbreak ever recorded in DRC
DR Congo is currently facing the largest outbreak of Ebola ever recorded in the country. The DRC government first declared the outbreak on May 15, and it was later confirmed that the Bundibugyo strain was responsible. Currently, there is no vaccine or specific treatment for the Bundibugyo strain, though promising candidates are being tested.
The highly contagious Bundibugyo virus is relatively unknown compared to other strains. However, it killed around 30 percent of infected people during previous outbreaks in Uganda (2007) and the DRC (2012). The disease typically begins with flu-like symptoms, including fever, which can mask its true identity, before progressing to severe bleeding and other signs of full-blown illness.
Experts warn that if the current trajectory continues, this outbreak will surpass the 2014–16 West African outbreak, which killed over 11,000 people, to become the largest Ebola outbreak in recorded history.
Intersecting crises: Conflict, Displacement, and Hunger
The Ebola outbreak is deteriorating amid escalating violence and mass displacement in eastern Congo. This situation endangers civilians and complicates efforts to contain the disease. This health emergency comes amid an already severe humanitarian crisis.
Nearly 15 million people in DRC need humanitarian assistance this year. More than half of the country's displaced population, 3.4 million people, are living in areas affected by the outbreak, exacerbating the situation further.
The humanitarian crisis in DRC is one of the world's longest-running and most neglected emergencies. Ongoing armed conflict continues to drive the crisis, and the country's human rights and humanitarian situation has steadily deteriorated for years.
The eastern provinces—particularly Ituri, North Kivu, and South Kivu—have been plagued by violence for decades as non-state armed groups compete for control of the region’s natural resources. The escalating hostilities continue to spread across the eastern part of the DRC, repeatedly claiming civilian lives and posing increased security risks to the civilian population.
Millions of people have been displaced, losing their homes, farmland, livestock, and income. Meanwhile, persistently high food prices, disrupted supply chains, and frequently occurring disease outbreaks, such as cholera, measles, and mpox, are pushing vulnerable communities closer to collapse.
Due to the ongoing conflict in the eastern provinces, DRC is facing one of the world's largest and most severe hunger crises. According to the most recent Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) data, over 26.5 million people — nearly one-quarter of the Congolese population — are currently unable to meet their basic food needs.