Congo on Thursday began vaccinating people against Ebola as health authorities work to slow the country’s deadliest outbreak of the disease on record.

The vaccination campaign was officially launched in Kisangani, the capital of Tshopo province, in the country’s east, Health Minister Roger Kamba said.

Health workers and other people working on the front lines of the Ebola response are among the first to receive the vaccine.

“We have decided to use the Ervebo vaccine to protect first those who are on the front line, therefore our health care providers, but also people who have been in contact with patients,” Kamba said.

The outbreak has so far affected six provinces in Congo, including Ituri, North Kivu, South Kivu, Tshopo, Haut-Uele and Bas-Uele.

As of Tuesday, the country had recorded 5,713 confirmed cases, including 2,744 deaths, according to government figures. The overall death rate among confirmed cases was about 48%.

The outbreak in eastern Congo is spreading under extremely difficult conditions, fueled by insecurity, displacement, a health workers’ strike and intense population movements. The World Health Organization has said it remains out of control and is on track to surpass the 2014-2016 West Africa Ebola outbreak, the deadliest on record, which killed more than 11,000 people, primarily in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

More than 50,000 doses of the Ervebo vaccine have been received, according to Congo’s state news agency.

The World Health Organisation said last week that 70,000 doses of Ervebo had been approved for use in Congo.

About 50,000 doses are intended for frontline and health workers, while another 20,000 will be used in a clinical trial to study whether the vaccine protects against Bundibugyo Ebola, the agency said.

The current outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo type of Ebola virus. Ervebo, however, is approved to protect against a different type, known as Zaire ebolavirus. There is currently no approved vaccine specifically for Bundibugyo Ebola.

The vaccine is being used under a compassionate-use program, which allows a medical product to be used in a serious disease situation even though it has not been specifically approved for that particular use.

Health authorities said Ervebo could offer some protection against the Bundibugyo virus because the two viruses are related. But whether the vaccine can actually prevent illness in people infected with Bundibugyo Ebola is still being studied.

Placide Mbala Kingebeni, Africa CDC’s director for research, clinical trials and innovation, said data will be collected during the vaccination campaign to measure how well the vaccine works.

The campaign is expected to cover 14 health zones in Tshopo, Bas-Uele and Haut-Uele provinces.

Kamba strongly encouraged health workers to get vaccinated, saying the vaccine could protect them from the disease and help prevent them from carrying the virus into their communities.

The head of the World Health Organization arrived in Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, late on Thursday (May 28, 2026) to witness efforts against an outbreak of a rare type of Ebola virus, as medical personnel struggle with a lack of equipment, a distrustful population and armed groups in a volatile region.

“To come here is to really show to the community that they’re not alone,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters at the airport.

“Pushing orders from my comfortable office in Geneva is easy, but I’m asking my colleagues to work with the community and I am asking communities to protect themselves,” he added.

Medical aid donated by the European Union arrived in Ituri province, the heart of Congo’s Ebola outbreak, on Thursday (May 28, 2026). The United States announced the same day $80 million in additional aid, bringing its total commitment to more than $112 million.

Health workers with scant supplies have been struggling to contain an outbreak of the Bundibugyo virus, a kind of Ebola that has no approved treatment or vaccine. In some areas, doctors have resorted to wearing expired medical masks while treating suspected patients.

According to WHO, 1,077 suspected cases and 238 suspected deaths have been recorded as of Tuesday (May 26, 2026)

Dangers faced by health workers have been heightened by anger among residents over the stringent medical protocols for dealing with the bodies of victims, which clash with local burial rites. Residents have launched at least three attacks against health centers.

Mr. Tedros said other challenges are also complicating the containment of the outbreak, including the high number of people displaced by armed conflict in the region, and food insecurity.

On Wednesday (May 27, 2026), he had called for a ceasefire in a region where armed groups have staged violent attacks for decades.

“We cannot build community trust or isolate the sick while bombs are falling,” Mr. Tedros said.

Tucked in the northeastern part of Congo close to the Ugandan border, Ituri province has been reeling from attacks by the Allied Democratic Force, a rebel group allied with the Islamic State group, and a coalition of ethnic militias. In early May, the ADF killed at least 40 people and burned several homes in Ituri.

The illness also has been reported in the Congolese provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu, south of Ituri, where the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group controls many key cities, including Goma and Bukavu. The rebels have reported two cases.

The region’s main airport in Goma, which doubles as a staging ground for humanitarian efforts into the region, has been closed since January 2025, when M23 seized the city.

The conflict has precipitated one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises, with at least 7 million people displaced in eastern Congo.

The WHO chief said on Thursday (May 28, 2026) he discourages countries from imposing travel bans against nationals of countries affected by the outbreak.

“There are ways to manage workers and to manage cases without having a strong, restricted travel ban and we don’t encourage that as WHO,” Mr. Tedros said.

The Trump administration last week announced a temporary ban on the entry of people without U.S. passports, as well as U.S. green-card holders, who have visited Congo, Uganda or South Sudan in the past 21 days. It said on Wednesday (May 27, 2026) it plans to send Americans who are exposed to Ebola to a new facility in Kenya instead of flying them to the U.S.