A poster displaying Ebola emergency contact numbers is pinned to a tent at the Busunga border crossing between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo in Bundibugyo, on May 18, 2026. Ugandan officials confirmed that a 59-year-old man from Democratic Republic of Congo had died in Kampala after being admitted earlier in the week. Tests showed the victim in Uganda was infected with the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, first identified in 2007.The World Health Organization declared an international health emergency on May 17, 2026 over an outbreak of an Ebola strain in the Democratic Republic of Congo that has killed more than 80 and for which there is no vaccine. Fears of further spread grew when a laboratory confirmed a case in the major eastern DRC city of Goma, which is controlled by the Rwanda-backed M23 militia.
The World Health Organization has warned that the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo now poses a "very high" risk at the national level, with 82 confirmed cases and seven confirmed deaths.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced in Geneva that the agency has raised its risk assessment for Congo from "high" to "very high," while keeping the risk "high" for regional spread and "low" at the global level.
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