The Head and Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Saturday (May 30, 2026) arrived in eastern Congo’s Bunia, a city at the heart of an outbreak of a rare type of Ebola, where the virus still spreads faster than the response, despite better-organised health facilities and new aid arrivals.

Dr. Tedros is expected to visit a treatment centre and meet local authorities, health workers and affected families in Bunia.

“The best way to address this is to provide all the necessary support to fight the disease at its epicentre and to continue offering every assistance needed,” Tedros told reporters late Friday (May 29, 2026).

Authorities have reported 906 suspected Ebola cases and 223 suspected deaths, the WHO said. Meanwhile, neighbouring Uganda has confirmed nine cases and one death, according to the country’s health ministry, on Friday (May 30, 2026).

The Bundibugyo virus, the current kind of Ebola, has no approved treatment or vaccine.

“This is a difficult situation, and we recognise that. But the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has faced the Ebola virus many times before. We are confident that it can once again bring this outbreak under control,” Dr. Tedros told reporters on Friday after meeting with Congo’s Prime Minister Judith Suminwa Tuluka.

Medical aid donated by the European Union (EU) arrived in Ituri, the heart of Congo’s Ebola outbreak, on Thursday (May 28, 2026), with more shipments expected over the next 8 days.

The U.S. announced $80 million in additional aid on the same day, bringing its total commitment to more than $112 million.

Response efforts at Bunia’s Rwampara and General hospitals appear more organised, with additional staff, protective gear and medical supplies, though patients continue arriving around the clock.

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.

At least 80 deaths have been reported in Democratic Republic of Congo’s (Congo) new Ebola disease outbreak in the eastern Ituri province, authorities said, as health workers raced Saturday (May 16, 2026) to intensify screening and contact tracing to contain the disease.

Officials first announced the outbreak on Friday (May 15, 2026) , with 65 deaths and 246 suspected cases.

Meanwhile, Associated Press (AP) journalists in Ituri’s capital, Bunia, interviewed locals who recounted their fears and constant burials.

“Every day, people are dying … and this has been going on for about a week. In a single day, we bury two, three, or even more people,” said Jean Marc Asimwe, a resident of Bunia. “At this point, we don’t really know what kind of disease it is,” said Mr. Asimwe.

Congolese Health Minister Samuel-Roger Kamba said late Friday that there have been eight laboratory-confirmed cases, among them four deaths.

Test results confirmed the Bundibugyo virus, a variant of the disease that has been less prominent in Congo’s past outbreaks. This is Congo’s 17th outbreak since Ebola first emerged in the country in 1976.

Ebola is highly contagious and can be contracted through bodily fluids such as vomit, blood, or semen. The disease it causes is rare, but severe and often fatal.

The suspected index case in the latest outbreak is a nurse who died at a hospital in Bunia, Mr. Kamba said. He said the case dates back three weeks to Friday (April 24 , 2026).

He did not say whether samples from the nurse were tested, but said the person presented symptoms suggestive of Ebola.

Congo is a large country that often faces logistical challenges Congo has experience in managing Ebola outbreaks but often faces logistical challenges to get expertise and supplies to affected regions.

As Africa’s second-largest country by land area, Congo’s provinces are far from one another and mostly battling conflict. Ituri, for instance, is around 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) from the nation’s capital, Kinshasa, and is ravaged by violence from Islamic State-backed militants.

The disease is so far confirmed in three health zones in the Ituri province, including the capital city, Bunia, as well as in Rwampara and Mongwalu where the outbreak is concentrated.

Only 13 blood samples have been tested at the National Institute of Biomedical Research, eight returning positive with the Bundibugyo strain. The remaining five could not be analyzed due to an insufficient volume of samples, the health minister said.

In Bunia, business appears to be normal , Ituri’s main city, businesses and regular activities at public places appeared to be normal on Friday (May 15, 2026).

Resident Adeline Awekonimungu said she hopes the outbreak is quickly contained. “My recommendation is that the government take this matter seriously and that it takes charge of the hospitals so that this matter can be brought under control,” she said.

Uganda also has confirmed an Ebola case that authorities said was “imported” from Congo. The person died at a hospital in Uganda’s capital, Kampala.

The Africa Centres for Disease Control (Africa CDC) and Prevention had said it is concerned about the risk of further spread due to the proximity of affected areas to Uganda and South Sudan.