A second Ebola patient has died just days after a fresh outbreak emerged, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.
The WHO has found that an infection confirmed last week in the Democratic Republic of Congo was a new "spillover event" - a transmission from an infected animal.
This means it is a completely new infection and is not linked to the last outbreak in December.
The second fatality was a female relative of the first case, a WHO spokesperson said.
The first patient, a 31-year-old man, started showing symptoms on April 5, but did not seek treatment for more than a week.
He was admitted to an Ebola treatment centre in Mbandaka, the capital of Congo's Equateur province, on April 21 and died later that day.
Congo has seen 13 previous outbreaks of Ebola, including one in 2018-2020 in the east that killed nearly 2,300 people, the second highest toll recorded in the history of the hemorrhagic fever.
Speaking of the first death, the WHO's regional director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti said: "Time is not on our side. The disease has had a two-week head start and we are now playing catch-up."
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) declared the end of its last devastating outbreak of Ebola in December.
Having recognised the symptoms, health workers immediately submitted samples to test for Ebola virus disease.
Investigations to determine the source of the outbreak are ongoing.
WHO representatives and local authorities are also trying to trace those who might have come into contact with the man in a bid to contain the disease.
Dr Moeti added: "The positive news is that health authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have more experience than anyone else in the world at controlling Ebola outbreaks quickly.”
The current Ebola outbreak is the 14th in the DRC since 1976 and the sixth since 2018.
Its last outbreak was declared on October 8 last year after a three-year-old boy fell ill, according to the WHO.
He died two days prior the announcement after suffering from stomach pain, difficulty breathing, loss of appetite, dark stool and blood in his vomit.
A total 11 cases including nine deaths were reported from the city of Beni during the country's last outbreak which lasted just over two months.
Previous outbreaks in Equateur Province struck in 2020 and 2018 with 130 and 54 cases recorded respectively.
