WHO chief calls for DRC ceasefire to tackle Ebola outbreak

The World Health Organization called for an immediate ceasefire in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo to contain an Ebola outbreak. The outbreak in Ituri province was confirmed on 15 May and has outpaced response efforts amid worsening insecurity and armed group activity. WHO data reported 900 suspected cases and 223 suspected Ebola deaths in the DRC, alongside seven confirmed cases and one death in Uganda. Conflict has displaced nearly 1 million people, spread Ebola into rebel-held areas of North Kivu and South Kivu, and disrupted containment by pushing exposed contacts into overcrowded camps. Attacks on health facilities hinder case tracking and contact tracing, preventing community trust-building and isolation of sick people. WHO said stopping transmission depends on humanitarian access and urged all warring parties to agree to a ceasefire.

"Stopping this Ebola transmission depends entirely on humanitarian access. Yet ongoing clashes are driving mass displacement, pushing exposed contacts into overcrowded camps and severing critical containment corridors. Frontline workers are risking everything, while attacks on health facilities make tracking cases and their contacts nearly impossible. We cannot build community trust or isolate the sick while bombs are falling. We urge all warring parties to agree to an immediate ceasefire to contain this outbreak."

"As of Sunday there had been 900 suspected cases and 223 suspected Ebola deaths in the DRC and seven confirmed cases and one death in Uganda, WHO data shows. The outbreak was confirmed on 15 May in Ituri, the DRC's most north-eastern province, which borders South Sudan and Uganda."

"Eastern DRC has a number of armed groups. Though the government still largely controls Ituri, insecurity had been worsening there before the Ebola outbreak. Almost 1 million people in the province have been displaced by conflict, according to the UN humanitarian office. The outbreak has spread south to rebel-held areas of North Kivu and South Kivu provinces, where the Rwandan-backed M23 group controls large swathes of the region."

"The response to the outbreak has been complicated by the transient nature of many communities in Ituri, where goldmines attract migrant workers, as well as by international aid cuts."

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