Ebola | Hunger, war and mistrust

Health workers transport an Ebola patient in Bunia, capital of Ituri Province in the DR Congo Photo: IMAGO/Xinhua Regardless of the busyness of aid organizations and in WHO committees: the current Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has not been overcome after half a year, nor are the prospects for it particularly good. Recently there was talk of more than 11,000 recorded cases and around 5,500 deaths. The bad news just doesn't stop. This Friday, WHO and several UN organizations (including Unicef) had to warn of an additional hunger crisis in the region in early 2027.

The vicious circle of armed conflict and disease outbreaks would then include acute hunger for more than 30 million people, including 4.2 million at emergency levels. This is not new either: 26.5 million people were affected by the hunger crisis in the first half of 2026. Things are looking particularly bad in the east of the DR Congo, in the very provinces that are struggling most with the Ebola epidemic.

The WHO regrets delays in the payment of salaries, which led to strikes and increased tensions.

Attacks by the various military and paramilitary forces involved lead to refugee movements in the DR Congo itself, which have already affected at least five million people in the east of the country. Under these conditions, farming becomes increasingly difficult as roads become unsafe and fields become devastated. 70 percent of the population could (or must) live from agriculture and livestock breeding. Military checkpoints further hinder any mobility, especially for aid deliveries.

In such a situation, health care takes a back seat, especially since its facilities are often attacked. The Ethiopian WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus himself listed some of the incidents in a speech this week to representatives of the WHO member states.

He mentioned an attack on the town of Cantine-Aloya in North Kivu province. Sixty-six civilians were killed here the week before, including three health care workers. Three health facilities were looted and burned. For the fight against Ebola, this also meant that contact with more than 1,000 people who had come into contact with infected people was lost. According to the WHO politician, three people with confirmed infections cannot be found.

In addition to the deaths of health workers in other places, there have been attacks, arson attacks, stones thrown at facilities and even specially secured funeral vehicles, as well as threats against everyone who is involved here.

The humanitarian crisis, which the aid organizations Help and Doctors Without Borders are complaining about, is comprehensive. The problem of reliably paying the helpers themselves is also unresolved. The WHO regrets delays in the payment of salaries, which in some cases led to strikes and caused even more tension.

Simple material shortages occur even when there is enough fuel for vehicles and even ambulances. The tracking of infection chains only happens on paper, criticizes Doctors Without Borders, among others; There was a lack of telephones and mobile data volumes to pass on warnings, not to mention basic medical equipment.

As a result, more and more infected people are dying in their villages and not in treatment centers. And as a result, the well-known problem arises that the dead have to be buried under strict protective measures, otherwise funerals become hotspots for further infections. The urgently needed trust cannot be built or restored so easily if private healthcare providers (including clinics, pharmacies and traditional healers) were ignored in the relief efforts, including Doctors Without Borders. The organization was among the first supporters of the Congolese authorities after the outbreak was declared on May 26 this year.

The international actors and experts are well aware of the means by which the Ebola outbreak could be contained. The WHO Director General summarized it in his speech: quickly identify every case of infection, isolate and treat it, and trace all contact persons in order to break the chains of transmission. Safe and dignified burials are also included.

Kenya shows that all of this can work together if the conditions are stable. The state recorded its first Ebola case on October 6th. The last patient has now been discharged from the hospital. In addition, none of the contacts of nine infected people were ill. On December 23, after 42 days, the equivalent of two cycles of infection, Kenya could be declared Ebola-free.

There is probably still a long way to go for the DR Congo. The outbreak reported in May is the fastest-spreading in terms of Ebola. Within 40 days of countermeasures being initiated, 1,000 cases were already known. The 2018 outbreak, also mainly in eastern Congo, lasted more than 200 days. In the epidemic from 2014 to 2016, which primarily affected three West African countries, 28,000 infected people and over 11,000 deaths were registered.

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