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The Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, called for an immediate ceasefire in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Wednesday to halt a rapidly spreading Ebola outbreak.
Ghebreyesus warned that intense fighting is driving mass displacement, forcing families into overcrowded camps where the lethal virus thrives.
The region faces a sharp surge in the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola—a variant with no approved vaccine or treatment—which the WHO recently declared a global health emergency.
Tedros stated on X that the outbreak in Ituri province is currently outpacing the medical response, describing the situation as a catastrophic collision of conflict and disease.
Eastern #DRC now faces a catastrophic collision of disease and conflict with the #Ebola outbreak in Ituri province outpacing the response.
The Ebola Bundibugyo virus has no approved vaccine nor treatment. Stopping this Ebola transmission depends entirely on humanitarian access.… pic.twitter.com/FGnQYIq6CH
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) May 27, 2026
He emphasised that healthcare workers cannot build community trust or safely isolate infected patients while under active bombardment.
The crisis spans three eastern provinces, including North Kivu and South Kivu, which are controlled by rival rebel factions.
So far, health officials have logged over 900 suspected cases and more than 200 deaths, and the aid group Save the Children reported that children account for a quarter of the fatalities.
The ongoing warfare has displaced millions of people and pushed border transit sites in neighbouring Uganda to double their capacity.
Although global donors have pledged $500 million to combat the crisis, health officials note that the funds have not fully arrived.
Consequently, frontline medical teams face crippling shortages of essential supplies.
A doctor in North Kivu told Reuters that their clinic has run out of basic protective gear, soap, and chlorine and has only two body bags left, blaming foreign aid cuts for the dangerous shortages.
