The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has reached 9,765 cases with 4,727 deaths, the World Health Organization's incident manager in the country, Dr Catherine Smallwood, told journalists in Geneva on Friday, warning that "if we lift the foot off the pedal, the virus will resurge very quickly" and spread to new areas, UN News reported.
Source: UN News, Oct 23, 2026
The outbreak of Ebola Bundibugyo virus disease was officially declared in mid-May, began in the volatile east and has now spread to eight provinces, the latest being Nord-Ubangi in the northwest, UN News reported. About 30,000 contacts are being monitored each day over a three-week period, it said. A WHO situation report released on October 21, reported by The Chronicle, put the outbreak at more than 9,600 confirmed cases and 4,646 deaths at that point, active in 50 of 66 affected health zones, with Ituri accounting for 72.7 per cent of confirmed cases.
Source: UN News; WHO AFRO via The Chronicle, Oct 23, 2026
At nearly six months in, the outbreak is occurring across a geographically vast area moving into ever harder-to-reach locations, some reachable only after several days by boat or motorcycle, Dr Smallwood said, speaking from the eastern city of Bunia, UN News reported. The crisis is unfolding amid ongoing conflict, hunger and displacement, and the World Food Programme is working to ensure families get enough to eat and is also building Ebola treatment centres, UN News said.
Source: UN News, Oct 23, 2026
WFP's representative in the DRC, David Stevenson, described families who depend on its support, including Francine Birungi Amoti, who lost a child to Ebola and is raising her six surviving children and a baby entrusted to her care but cannot reach her fields because of violence, UN News reported. "This is what a crisis on top of a crisis looks like: disease and bereavement, compounded by insecurity and hunger," Stevenson said, according to UN News.
Source: UN News, Oct 23, 2026
Dr Smallwood said the number of people dying from Ebola outside recognised treatment centres "remains a big flag" for late detection, though the past week saw a decline in community deaths, indicating early detection and quick referral are working, UN News reported. In some parts of eastern DRC, patients visit between two and five different health facilities before they are referred to Ebola treatment centres, she said.
Source: UN News, Oct 23, 2026
WHO had set a target of 3,000 treatment beds across affected areas and more than 2,000 are now available, and 2,600 people in the DRC have survived Ebola, with clinics opened for survivors' follow-up care and psychosocial support, UN News reported. A smaller outbreak in Uganda was declared over in August, while cases have also been confirmed in Kenya, Nigeria and France, it said.
Source: UN News, Oct 23, 2026