Outbreak of Bundibugyo Virus in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo suspected of killing more than 220 people.

More than 220 people are thought to have died, and more than 900 people to have been infected, in an outbreak of Bundibugyo Virus in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, according to a press release issued by the United Nations on 25 May 2025. Bundibugyo Virus, properly Bundibugyo ebolavirus, is a member of the Ebola Virus Family, Filoviridae, which causes an Ebola-like hemorrhagic fever, and is often referred to simply as 'Ebola'.

The World Health Organization was first notified of the outbreak on 5 May 2026, as an unknown illness with a high mortality rate which had already claimed the lives of four health workers in the Mongbwalu Health Zone of Ituri Province, Democratic Republic of Congo. The identity of the disease as Bundibugyo Virus was determined from samples sent to the Institut national de recherche biomédicale in Kinshasa on 15 May. 

By this time the Virus had spread to the Rwampara and Bunia health zones, also in Ituri Province, with 246 reported cases and 80 fatalities. Health workers began investigating clusters of deaths with compatible symptoms in the community. A case was also confirmed in Uganda, after an elderly man from Democratic Republic of Congo was admitted to a private hospital with severe symptoms and subsequently died. This patient was subsequently confirmed as having been infected with Bundibugyo Virus by the Central Emergency Surveillance and Response Support Laboratory at Wandegeya. His remains were subsequently returned to the Democratic Republic of Congo. A second case was reported in Uganda on 16 May, this time a Ugandan national who had recently returned from Democratic Republic of Congo. This patient is being treated in Uganda; no transmission of the Virus in Uganda has been reported. 

Health Zones affected by Bundibugyo Virus Disease in Democratic Republic of Congo, as of 16 May 2026. World Health Organization.

By 21 May the outbreak had spread to North Kivu and South Kivu provinces, with 746 suspected cases and 176 deaths thought to have been caused by Bundibugyo Virus, although only 85 cases, including ten fatalities have been confirmed by laboratory analysis. No further cases had been reported in Uganda, but an American national who had been working as a surgeon in Democratic Republic of Congo was confirmed as having the Virus and airlifted to Germany for treatment.

Risk mapping of Health Zones in Democratic Republic of Congo as of 21 May 2026. World Health Organization.

Bundibugyo Virus was first described in 2008 following an outbreak in Bundibugyo District Uganda. Only one subsequent outbreak has been reported prior to 2026, in Province Orientale, Democratic Republic of Congo, in 2012. Thus, although the Virus is closely related to Ebola, and produces a similar disease, there has been no specific treatment developed for it, and no vaccine to prevent its spread. This has made it difficult to implement an effective treatment and containment program against a disease with a 30% fatality rate.

Ituri Province is located in the northeast of Democratic Republic of Congo, with borders with Uganda and South Sudan. It has a large, if generally informal, mining sector, which attracts workers from neighbouring provinces and countries. The infrastructure of Ituri Province is generally weak, with healthcare services largely dependent on support by aid programs run by western countries, particularly the United States. These programs have been cut heavily by the current US administration, further weakening healthcare provision.

To make matters worse, a long running conflict in the province has seen an upsurge in violence since December 2025, with fighting between the Convention for the Popular Revolution and the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo leading to at least 40 people being killed and around 100 000 being displaced. The Convention for the Popular Revolution is one of several rebel groups active in the region, and has been accused by the Congolese Government of forcibly recruiting child soldiers and being a front for the Ugandan and/or Rwandan governments to exploit the regions mineral wealth. Nevertheless, the Convention for the Popular Revolution has sometimes worked alongside the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ugandan Army to fight against other groups, notably the Allied Democratic Forces, a group thought to be allied to Islamic State.

Unloading supplies for the isolation and treatment tents at the Bunia Referral Hospital, Ituri Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo, May 2026. World Health Organization.

All of this has made it extremely difficult to implement effective track-and-trace and treatment programs to contain the Bundibugyo Virus outbreak. To complicate things further, a disinformation campaign appears to have been circulating on social media, adding to the distrust of outsiders and officialdom in general which is prevalent in the local population, something that has led to attacks on healthcare workers and facilities. Local people have reportedly set fire to two treatment centres in which patients were being treated in isolation, following a dispute over a safe burials program implemented to prevent the spread of the disease. This involves the burial of the deceased by healthcare workers with a minimal number of people present, and goes against local customs of large funerals and ritually washing the dead by relatives. 

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Monkey Pox outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo officially declared to have ended.

An outbreak of Monkey Pox in the Democratic Republic of Congo which has been raging since 2023 has officially been declared to have ended by the Ministry of Public Health. During the course of the epidemic, 161 000 people are thought to have been infected with the disease in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with 37 000 cases confirmed by laboratory testing. A total of 2286 deaths have been attributed to the disease within the country, although only 127 of these were confirmed by laboratory testing. At the height of the epidemic the disease spilled over into several neighbouring, and internationally connected, countries, causing the World Heath Organization to declare a global emergency.

A patient with Monkey Pox waiting at the Kamituga General Hospital in South Kivu Province, Democratic Republic of Congo, in September 2004. Moses Sawasawa/AP.

Monkeypox (or Mpox) is caused by a double-stranded DNA virus of the genus Orthopoxvirus, which is the same genus as the Viruses which cause Smallpox and Cow Pox. It causes a Chickenpox-like disease, with a distinctive rash with large blisters or sores on all parts of the body, as well as a fever, headaches, muscle and back aches, joint pain, chills, exhaustion, and swollen glands. Most patients recover within a few weeks, however it can cause more dangerous secondary symptoms, including pneumonia, sepsis, encephalitis, and blindness. Older and younger patients are particularly at risk, as are patients who have weakened immune systems or are pregnant. The disease typically has a case fatality ratio of about 1%.

Monkeypox is a zoonotic disease, with a wild reserve of the Virus found in several species of Primates and Rodents. Outbreaks usually start with an Animal-to-Human infection, although Humans at the blistering stage of the disease are capable of spreading it to other Humans. The Virus was first detected in Crab-eating Macaques, Macaca fascicularis, in a laboratory in Denmark in 1958, an outbreak which gave the disease its name (it is now thought to be more prevalent in Rodents than Primates). The first known Human infection with Monkeypox was reported from the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1970.

Monkeypox Virus size and structure in comparison to HIV, SARS-COV-2 and Poliovirus. Membranes and membrane-bound proteins are in purple, capsids are in dark blue, and genomes and nucleoid-associated proteins are in turquoise. PDB-101.

There are two main clades of Monkeypox, Clade I, which is predominantly found in Central Africa, and Clade II, which is predominantly found in West Africa. However, in May 2022 a cluster of cases was found in London, England, which is thought to have been brought to the country by a patient from Nigeria. These infections were caused by a new strain, which was apparently transmitted from Human-to-Human more readily than previously encountered variants, and was given the identifier Clade IIb (because it was a new clade derived from Clade II, which subsequently became referred to as Clade IIa. Notably, the spread of this strain has been linked to sexual activity. Clade IIb subsequently spread to 121 countries over the next two years, infecting more than 99 500 people and causing over 200 deaths.

In September 2023, another new and apparently more virulent variant, later named Clade Ib, was identified in the mining town of Kamituga in South Kivu Province, Democratic Republic of Congo. This spread from Human-to-Human more readily than previously known forms of the disease, and had a case fatality ratio of 3-4%, making it much deadlier than previously encountered variants. Unlike Clade IIb, Clade Ib appeared to spread largely among children, with 70% of reported cases and 85% of reported deaths being under the age of 15, although it has been suggested that this is in part because the disease has spread through several large refugee camps, where large numbers of children are also suffering from malnutrition, as well as other infectious diseases such as Cholera and Measles. 

Clade Ib has subsequently been reported in 25 countries, although in most cases this has been single patients who developed symptoms of the disease after returning from travel to Central Africa. However, in neighbouring countries such as Burundi, Rwanda, and the Central African Republic, as well as Indonesia and the Philippines, the clade has begun to spread locally, leading to public health campaigns to contain it.

Fortunately, because Monkeypox is closely related to Smallpox, vaccines against that disease have been shown to be effective against its spread. Because the last recorded case of Smallpox was in 1977, and the disease was declared officially globally eradicated in 1980, few countries maintain a stock of the vaccine, and active vaccination programs against Smallpox have not been carried out for decades. However, the technology to produce these vaccines still exists, and manufacturers in the United States, Spain, and Denmark have been distributing the vaccines since 2024.

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Landslide at mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo kills at least 227.

The number of confirmed deaths following a landslide at a mine in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has now reached 227, with more people thought to be buried beneath the debris. The landslide struck at the Rubaya Coltan Mine in North Kivu Province on Wednesday 28 January 2026, and is thought to have been  caused by heavy rain, associated with the bi-annual rainy season. Landslides are a common problem after severe weather events, as excess pore water pressure can overcome cohesion in soil and sediments, allowing them to flow like liquids. Approximately 90% of all landslides are caused by heavy rainfall. The victims of the event are reported to include women and children.

The Rubaya Mine is the world's single largest producer of coltan, an abbreviation for columbite–tantalites, the ore for the metals niobium and tantalum, which are vital to a the modern electronics industry. The Rubaya Mine produces somewhere between 15 and 30% of the world's supply of coltan, but is not a modern mining facility, instead being largely worked by artisanal miners with basic tools, digging into the side of Rubaya Hill. This sort of mining activity leaves sites particularly vulnerable to landslips as it creates exposed slopes with no vegetation to bind soils in place. The site is in an area under the control of the M23 rebel group, who are thought to earn about US$800 000 per year from the mine, although local labourers typically earn only a few dollars per day.

Mining activity at the Rubaya Mine. Hasan Lali/BBC.

The M23 militia (officially the Mouvement du 23 mars) was formed in 2012 by former members of the National Congress for the Defence of the People, a Rwandan-backed rebel group which had become part of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo following a 2009 peace agreement, but left following alleged human rights violations by that group. The M23 militia now controls a large area of North Kivu Province, including many coltan and gold mining sites. It is widely thought to be associated with government of Rwanda, and the be selling minerals via that country, although the Rwandans deny this.

North Kivu Province  two Rainy Seasons per year, with a rainy season that runs from August to January and another that lasts from February to July. Such a double Rainy Season is common close to the equator, where the Sun is highest overhead around the equinoxes and lowest on the horizons around the solstices, making the solstices the coolest part of the year and the equinoxes the hottest.

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At least 32 miners killed in incident in Lualaba Province, Democratic Republic of Congo.

At least 32 people have died, with some sources giving a larger number of 49, following the collapse of a makeshift bridge at a mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The incident happened at the Kalando Cobalt Mine in Lualaba Province, Democratic Republic of Congo, on Saturday 15 November 2025, following an incursion at the mine by wildcat miners. The mine was closed at the time following heavy rains, which had led to concerns about the danger of landslides, but like many mines in the area is prone to incursions by informal miners, who take advantage of any suspension of regular activities. 

On this occasion the miners had entered the mine via bridge over a flooded trench to enter the site. However, soldiers who had been deployed to guard the mine fired upon these miners, injuring two and causing a panic which led to a large number of people trying to cross the bridge at once. While this was happening one of the walls of the open pit mine collapsed, with the subsequent landslide hitting the bridge.

The moment a landslide hit a bridge covered at a mine in Lualaba Province, Democratic Republic of Congo. AlJazeera. 

Informal artisanal mining is common in many parts of Africa, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, which like may other countries has granted concessions to mining companies in areas where small-scale artisanal mining has traditionally helped to supplement the incomes of subsistence farmers. However, little of the money from such projects tends to reach local communities, which often leads to ill feeling and attempts to continue mining clandestinely, often at night or under other unfavourable conditions, which can put the miners at greater risk.

Artisanal miners at the Kalando site that until 2018, they had been free to operate as they pleased, but since that time the site had been taken over by a company with links to the family of President Felix Tshisekedi, as well as Chinese business interests. The Congolese Government claims that it has tried to exclude untrained miners from the site precisely because it feared an incident of this type.

Cobalt is a critical component of lithium batteries, which are used in technologies such as mobile phones and electric cars. The Democratic Republic of Congo is the world's largest producer of cobalt, but the industry is notoriously unregulated, with repeated reports of widespread forced labour, often of children, of workers being exposed to hazardous chemicals, and environmental destruction. Most of the extracted cobalt is exported to China, where it is used to manufacture electrical goods. 

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Thirty one known deaths in an Ebola Virus outbreak in Kasai Province, Democratic Republic of Congo.

Thirty one people are now known to have died and a further seventeen people have received hospital treatment in an outbreak of Ebola Virus in Kasai Province, Democratic Republic of Congo. The first reported case was a woman in the 34th week of a pregnancy, who was admitted to Bulape General Reference Hospital on 20 August 2025 suffering from high fever, bloody diarrhoea, haemorrhaging and extreme weakness, according to a press release issued by the World Health Organization. This first patient died from multiple organ failure on 25 August, and was subsequently confirmed to have been infected with Ebola Virus through analysis of samples sent to the Institut National de Recherche Biomédicale in Kinshasa. Two healthcare workers who had come into contact with the patient also subsequently died of the Virus.

By the 4 September 28 cases of the Virus had been reported, with fifteen fatalities including four healthcare workers (a 54% case fatality ratio), all within the Bulape and Mweka health zones, with 80% of cases in persons above the age of fifteen. By 18 September 48 cases had been reported, with 31 known fatalities (a 64% case fatality ratio), and the Virus had spread to four healthcare districts. 

A team of medics from Medecins Sans Frontiers helping to set up an Ebola treatment centre in Bulape in September 2025. Medecins Sans Frontiers.

Ebola Virus Disease is caused by RNA Viruses of the genus Ebolavirus (sometimes referred to as Orthoebolavirus because it belongs to the Kingdom Orthornavirae). It has a reputation for being the world's deadliest viral disease, at least in part due to the 1995 film Outbreak, though this is probably slightly inaccurate as about 50% of victims survive, making it less deadly than diseases such as Rabies. However, it is extremely contagious, with know known cure, and has a tendency to rapidly overwhelm local health systems as health workers themselves are infected.

Electron micrograph of an Ebola Virus particle. Frederick Murphy/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/Wikimedia Commons.

Ebola begins with a fever similar to that caused by Influenza or Malaria, which tends to come on rapidly two-to-three weeks after infection (during at least part of which time the patient is already infectious). This tends to be followed by extreme respiratory tract infection, headaches, confusion, rashes and tissue necrosis and heavy bleeding. Death is generally caused by multiple organ failure.

The only known treatment for Ebola is intensive rehydration, which can improve the survival prospects of patients greatly, accompanied by anticoagulants and procoagulants to mange the diseases attacks on the circulatory system, analgesia to cope with the pain of the disease and antibiotics and antimycotics to prevent secondary infection. Due to the highly contagious nature of the disease it is recommended that healthcare workers wear full-body protection to maintain a barrier between them and their patients; a daunting prospect in the tropical regions of Africa where the disease is endemic. A vaccine is now available for the disease.

Ebolavirus is thought to have a non-human animal vector, since its rapid onset and high mortality rate appears to preclude a permanent residence within Human hosts. Surveys of wild animals have found Ebola infections in Rodents and Great Apes, however these were affected by the disease in a similar way to Humans, and are therefore unlikely permanent hosts. The most likely vectors are thought to be Fruit Bats or small Primates, which are endemic to the areas where the disease occurs and which are widely eaten; cooking meat probably kills the virus, but there is a distinct danger of infection while preparing carcasses. 

Following the conformation that the outbreak in Kasai Province was caused by the Ebola Virus, the World Health Organization delivered 14 tonnes of emergency supplies to Bulape, including personal protective equipment, mobile laboratory equipment and medical supplies. Additional medical personnel, experienced in dealing with Ebola outbreaks, have also been sent to the area by the Congolese Ministry of Health, the World Health Organization, and Medecins Sans Frontiers. 

A specialist 34-bed Ebola treatment centre has been set up in Bulape, There are reported to be 2000 doses of Ebolavirus vaccine available in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which have been dispatched to Kasai Province, with the 523 front line healthcare workers having been the first recipients of the vaccines; a further 45 000 doses of vaccine are being sent to the area by international agencies. A testing lab has also been set up in Bulape, allowing for results to be obtained within 4-6 hours of samples being taken, as opposed to the 4-5 days needed to get a result from samples shipped to Kinshasa. 

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