Arrival and reassurance in Kinshasa

World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus arrived in the Democratic Republic of Congo's capital Kinshasa on Thursday evening, 28 May 2026, to oversee the response to a rapidly spreading Ebola outbreak. Speaking to the press upon landing, he struck a determined tone.

“Even if the situation is complex, I think we can stop this thing.”

He is scheduled to travel on Friday to Ituri province, the northeastern epicentre of the epidemic. In an open letter published on X before his arrival, he told Congolese citizens, "You are not alone," acknowledging the multiple burdens they face.

Scale of the outbreak

The current epidemic, the 17th Ebola outbreak in the vast nation of around 100 million people, was officially declared on 15 May. It is driven by the Bundibugyo strain of the virus, for which no specific vaccine or treatment currently exists. According to official figures cited by multiple sources, the outbreak has already claimed 246 lives out of more than 1,000 suspected cases, though the WHO has warned that the true toll is likely significantly higher. The virus has spread to three Congolese provinces — Ituri, North Kivu, and South Kivu — and has crossed into neighbouring Uganda, where seven confirmed infections, including one death, have been recorded.

A race for vaccines and treatments

With no existing medical countermeasures for the Bundibugyo strain, the WHO announced on Thursday that its expert and advisory groups have recommended clinical trials for several promising vaccine and treatment candidates. The groups reviewed multiple products deemed sufficiently advanced to warrant priority evaluation in human trials.

“All identified and considered products should be used exclusively within the framework of clinical trials in order to generate robust data and ensure safe, ethical, and effective research.”

Separately, the head of the African Union's health agency stated that a vaccine should be ready by the end of 2026.

Conflict complicating the response

The outbreak is unfolding in a region scarred by decades of armed violence. Ituri province, the epicentre, is plagued by attacks from ADF rebels affiliated with the Islamic State and by communal militias. Neighbouring North Kivu and South Kivu are also affected by near-continuous conflict, with large swathes of territory controlled by the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group. Tedros issued a direct appeal to all warring parties.

“I am making a direct appeal to all warring parties in this region: please, declare a ceasefire. No cause, no conflict, no grievance is worth condemning innocent people to death from a preventable disease.”

Response challenges and travel restrictions

On the ground, the response is struggling to gain traction. AFP teams witnessed patients with haemorrhagic symptoms arriving at health facilities on the back of motorcycle taxis, with neither the patients nor the drivers wearing protective equipment. The WHO has triggered an international health alert and raised the public health risk level for DR Congo from "high" to "very high," while maintaining a "high" regional risk and a "low" global risk. Tedros stated that the WHO does not recommend travel bans, arguing they "don't help much," even as Uganda and Rwanda have closed their borders with DR Congo and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared that the United States would not let "a single case of Ebola enter" the country.