GOMA: Fighting between government troops and the Rwanda-backed M23 militia has been raging for days in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where an Ebola epidemic is spreading, security sources and locals said Monday. The mineral-rich region has been scarred by violence from various armed groups for more than three decades. Since 2021, the M23 has seized swathes of territory and fighting has stepped up since the start of 2025. It is also ground zero for an Ebola outbreak which has sparked an international health alert by the World Health Organization. The illness has caused 204 deaths and 867 suspected cases, according to a toll given over the weekend by the DRC&#39;s health ministry. The security and local sources said the recent combat has been taking place in Masisi, an area in North Kivu province, which lies south of the Ituri province, the epicentre of the Ebola epidemic. On Monday, North Kivu&#39;s &nbsp;deputy governor, Didier Lomoyo, said mortar fire had been aimed at the strategic airport at Kisangani, used by Congolese troops, while a police source on the ground told AFP that two drones had been intercepted &quot;without causing any damage.&quot; In recent months, M23 has repeatedly targeted the airport, from which military aircraft belonging to Kinshasa&rsquo;s forces take off. Local sources have reported several air strikes in localities in North Kivu and South Kivu in recent days, but AFP has not been able to confirm the casualty figures from these strikes with independent sources.

Response team members are helped to wear protective suits before burying a person suspected of having died from Ebola in Bunia, in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, on May 25, 2026. (AFP)

Africa

Fighting between government troops and Rwanda-backed M23 militia intensifies in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo as a deadly Ebola epidemic spreads across the region.

Fighting flares in east DR Congo as Ebola epidemic spreads

GENEVA: The countries neighboring the Democratic Republic of Congo are at high risk from Ebola and should act immediately to counter the virus, the World Health Organization&rsquo;s head said on Monday.&nbsp;&quot;Countries bordering DRC are at especially high risk and should take immediate action,&quot; said WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, adding that he would travel on Tuesday to the DRC, the epicentre of the current outbreak of the deadly disease.&nbsp;&quot;The outbreak is spreading rapidly,&quot; Tedros told a virtual ministerial meeting on the viral haemorrhagic fever, which spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids. It can cause severe bleeding and organ failure.&nbsp;He said the current outbreak was &quot;especially challenging&quot;.&nbsp;&quot;First, the delay in detecting the outbreak means that we are now playing catch-up with a very fast-moving epidemic. We are urgently scaling up operations but at the moment, the epidemic is outpacing us,&quot; he said by videolink from Geneva.&nbsp;Secondly, the eastern provinces of the DRC, where the outbreak was first detected on May 15, &quot;are highly insecure, with intensified fighting in recent months (and) there is also significant distrust of outside authorities among the local population&quot;.&nbsp;Thirdly, he pointed out, there were &quot;no approved vaccines or therapeutics&quot; for the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola behind the current outbreak.&nbsp;The WHO has recorded 10 confirmed Ebola deaths and 220 suspected deaths in the DRC since May 15. One person is confirmed dead in neighbouring Uganda&nbsp;Ten African countries are at risk of being affected by the Ebola virus, in addition to the DRC and Uganda, the African Union&#39;s health agency, Africa CDC, warned on Saturday.

WHO warns neighboring countries of Democratic Republic of Congo are at high Ebola risk as the outbreak spreads rapidly. Ten confirmed and 220 suspected deaths reported, plus one in Uganda. Insecurity, delay, and no vaccine worsen the situation.

WHO urges DRC's neighbors to act immediately on Ebola

<h1 id="isPasted" style="line-height: 2;">GENEVA: More than 900 suspected Ebola cases have been identified in the conflict-hit Democratic Republic of Congo, the World Health Organization (WHO) chief has said.</h1> &quot;As surveillance efforts have been scaled up in the DRC Ebola response, more than 900 suspected cases have been identified so far, including 101 confirmed cases,&quot; WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a Sunday social media post that gave no update on the death toll. Ebola is a deadly viral disease that spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids. It can cause severe bleeding and organ failure. The country declared an outbreak on May 15 caused by the Bundibugyo strain, which has no approved vaccine or treatments. In a previous update released on Saturday, the DR Congo health ministry said 204 deaths had been recorded in three provinces of the vast central African country, from 867 suspected cases. Ebola has killed more than 15,000 people across Africa in the past half-century.

Health authorities are scaling up surveillance in conflict-hit regions as the outbreak continues, with cases spread across multiple provinces and ongoing monitoring of infections and disease transmission.

Suspected Ebola cases top 900 in DR Congo: WHO chief

ADDIS ABABA: Officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo updated the death toll from the Ebola outbreak to 204 late Saturday, hours after the Red Cross said three volunteers had died there and Uganda confirmed three new Ebola cases. A health ministry statement said 204 deaths had been recorded in three provinces of the vast central African country, from 867 suspected cases. The last World Health Organization toll on Friday put the number of deaths at 177 from 750 suspected cases. The World Health Organization has declared the outbreak of the highly contagious hemorrhagic fever an international emergency. On Saturday, the African Union&#39;s health agency warned that more countries on the continent were at risk of being affected by the Ebola virus, in addition to the DRC and Uganda. &quot;We have 10 countries at risk,&quot; said Jean Kaseya, head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), listing Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Zambia. Kaseya said &quot;high mobility and insecurity&quot; in the region were helping spread the disease. The new cases confirmed in Uganda on Saturday bring to five the total confirmed in the east African country since it was detected there and in the DRC on May 15. One person in Uganda has died. The health ministry named the new patients as a Ugandan driver, a Ugandan health worker and a woman from the DRC. All are alive. Ebola is a deadly viral disease that spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids. It can cause severe bleeding and organ failure. The current epidemic centers on the conflict-wracked eastern DRC, where it was detected in Ituri province, which borders Uganda, before spreading to South Kivu. First known victimsThe Red Cross said on Saturday that three Congolese volunteers had died in Ituri after apparently contracting Ebola there. The three &quot;were carrying out dead body management activities on March 27 as part of a humanitarian mission unrelated to Ebola&quot;, said the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). &quot;At the time of the intervention, the community was not aware of the Ebola virus disease outbreak... They are among the first known victims.&quot;Ebola has killed more than 15,000 people in Africa in the past half-century. On Friday,&nbsp;the WHO raised the risk from Ebola in the DRC to its highest level &ndash; &quot;very high&quot;. It said the risk in central Africa was &quot;high&quot; but the global risk remained &quot;low&quot;. The outbreak, which experts suspect was circulating under the radar for some time, is caused by the less common Bundibugyo strain, for which there are no approved vaccines or treatments. On Thursday, Uganda suspended public transport to the DRC after confirming its first two cases &ndash; one infection and one death &ndash; involving Congolese nationals who crossed the border. It said the driver confirmed infected on Saturday had been at the wheel of the vehicle in which one of the ill Congolese nationals had travelled to Uganda.The health worker was exposed to the virus when treating that Congolese patient. The third case was a Congolese woman who had visited Uganda and tested positive for Ebola after returning to the DRC. &#39;Everyone&#39;s problem&#39;&nbsp;The eastern DRC has been plagued for three decades by conflict involving numerous armed groups. State services in rural areas of Ituri have been largely absent for decades. South Kivu is controlled by the Rwandan-backed armed group M23, which has never had to manage an epidemic like Ebola. &quot;This is everyone&#39;s problem,&quot; Congolese Health Minister Samuel Roger Kamba told a news conference in Addis Ababa alongside Kaseya. He said the Kinshasa government needed to have &quot;total control&quot; of the DRC territory to stop the virus spreading.

Health officials warn wider regional spread as new cases emerge in Uganda and deaths rise in Congo, prompting emergency response measures and concern across multiple African countries at risk of infection.

Ebola toll tops 200, other African countries seen at risk

GENEVA: The captain of the cruise ship which was hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak was finally due to leave the vessel on Saturday, the WHO chief said.&nbsp;Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the World Health Organization, has been in regular contact with captain Jan Dobrogowski, throughout the ordeal on the MV Hondius.&nbsp;The Dutch-flagged ship set off April 1 from Ushuaia, Argentina, taking in remote islands in the South Atlantic Ocean before heading north to Cape Verde, then Tenerife in Spain&#39;s Canary Islands, where remaining passengers were evacuated.&nbsp;The polar exploration ship docked in Rotterdam harbour in the Netherlands on Monday, with the skeleton crew facing weeks of quarantine.&nbsp;&quot;Just received the last message from captain Jan Dobrogowski, who is finally leaving the MV Hondius cruise ship today. He remains without hantavirus symptoms,&quot; Tedros said on X.&nbsp;He said that, so far, 12 suspected and confirmed cases have been reported to the WHO, including three deaths, adding that no deaths had been reported since May 2.&nbsp;&quot;All the passengers and crew are now in quarantine with close monitoring to receive care if need be,&quot; said Tedros.&nbsp;&quot;I&#39;m deeply grateful for Jan&rsquo;s cooperation and leadership as he navigated the ship through an extraordinary and scary journey. Thank you, dear Jan, for steering your passengers towards safety.&quot;&nbsp;A crew member who disembarked in Tenerife and was repatriated to the Netherlands was confirmed Friday as a new hantavirus case.&nbsp;The crew member had been in home quarantine and was transferred to hospital after the Andes virus was detected, said the RIVM (Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment).&nbsp;The Andes variant is the only strain of hantavirus known to be able to jump from human to human, via very close contact.&nbsp;Everyone evacuated from the ship to the Netherlands is being tested every week. The positive test was confirmed by two separate laboratories, the RIVM said.&nbsp;Tedros told a press conference on Friday that more than 600 contacts were being followed in 30 countries, while a small number of high-risk contacts were still being located.&nbsp;Spread by rodents, hantavirus is a rare virus for which no vaccines or specific treatments exist.

Europe

Captain Jan Dobrogowski of cruise ship MV Hondius is leaving after a hantavirus outbreak. There are 12 cases and 3 deaths and over 600 contacts are being tracked worldwide.

Hondius captain to leave hantavirus ship: WHO

KINSHASA: The World Health Organization declared an international health emergency on Sunday 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 on Sunday confirmed a case in the major eastern DRC city of Goma, which is controlled by the Rwanda-backed M23 militia. A total of 88 deaths and 336 suspected cases of the highly contagious hemorrhagic fever have so far been reported, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC Africa) said in an update Saturday. &quot;A positive case in Goma has been confirmed by tests carried out by the laboratory. It involves the wife of a man who died of Ebola in Bunia, who travelled to Goma after her husband&#39;s death whilst already infected,&quot; Professor Jean-Jacques Muyembe, director of the Congolese National Institute for Biomedical Research (INRB), told AFP. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus expressed deep disquiet as the reported cases rise. &quot;I determine that the epidemic constitutes a public health emergency of international concern,&quot; Ghebreyesus posted to X, albeit adding that as yet it &quot;does not meet the criteria of pandemic emergency.&quot; As things stand, the Geneva-based WHO has declared its second-highest level of alert &mdash; a pandemic being the highest &mdash; with the global health body warning the scale of the current outbreak remains unclear. &quot;There are significant uncertainties to the true number of infected persons and geographic spread,&quot; the WHO said. Medical aid group Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said it was preparing a &quot;large-scale response,&quot; calling the rapid spread of the outbreak &quot;extremely concerning.&quot; DR Congo&#39;s Health Minister Samuel-Roger Kamba said the Bundibugyo strain causing the outbreak had &quot;a very high fatality rate, which can reach 50%.&quot; Patient zero&nbsp;The strain &mdash; first identified in 2007 &mdash; has also killed a Congolese national in neighboring Uganda, officials said Saturday. Uganda on Sunday announced the postponement of the Martyrs&#39; Day pilgrimage, an annual Christian festival that normally draws thousands of worshippers from across the border in eastern Congo. Vaccines are only available for the Zaire strain, which was identified in 1976 and has a higher fatality rate of 60-90%. Health officials had confirmed the latest outbreak on Friday in Ituri province in northeastern DRC, bordering Uganda and South Sudan, according to CDC Africa. According to Kamba, patient zero was a nurse who reported to a health facility in Ituri&#39;s provincial capital, Bunia, on April 24, with symptoms suggesting Ebola. Symptoms of the disease include fever, hemorrhaging, and vomiting. Large-scale transport of medical equipment is a challenge in the DRC, a country of more than 100 million people, which is four times the size of France but has a poor communications infrastructure. High risk of spread&nbsp;It is the 17th Ebola outbreak to hit the DRC, and officials warned of a high risk of spread. With the outbreak largely concentrated in difficult-to-access areas, few samples have been lab tested. But the WHO said the high positivity rate of initial samples, the confirmation of cases in two countries, and the increasing reports of suspected cases &quot;all point towards a potentially much larger outbreak than what is currently being detected and reported, with significant local and regional risk of spread.&quot; The previous outbreak of Ebola was last August in the region, with at least 34 people dying before it was declared eradicated in December. The disease, over the past 50 years, has killed around 15,000 people in Africa, despite advances in vaccines and treatment. Nearly 2,300 people died in the deadliest outbreak in the DRC between 2018 and 2020. Ebola, believed to have originated in bats, can cause severe bleeding and organ failure. Outbreaks over the past half-century have seen a mortality rate among those affected of between 25% and 90%, according to WHO The virus spreads from person to person through bodily fluids or exposure to the blood of an infected person, who becomes contagious only once they display symptoms. The incubation period can last up to 21 days.

A total of 88 deaths and 336 suspected cases of the highly contagious hemorrhagic fever have so far been reported; WHO director general expresses deep disquiet as the reported cases rise.

WHO declares international emergency as Ebola outbreak kills more than 80 in DR Congo

GENEVA:&nbsp;An Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has killed more than 80 as authorities warned there was no vaccine for the strain in a crisis that the World Health Organization declared an international health emergency on Sunday. A total of 88 deaths and 336 suspected cases of the highly contagious hemorrhagic fever have been reported, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC Africa) said in an update on Saturday. The Geneva-based WHO said early on Sunday the outbreak caused by the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola constituted a &quot;public health emergency of international concern&quot; -- the second-highest level of alert under international health regulations. The global health body warned that the true scale of cases and spread was unclear, but stopped short of declaring a pandemic emergency, the highest alert level introduced in 2024. Medical aid group M&eacute;decins Sans Fronti&egrave;res (MSF) said it was preparing a &quot;large-scale response,&quot; calling the rapid spread of the outbreak &quot;extremely concerning,&quot; in warnings echoed by authorities. &quot;The Bundibugyo strain has no vaccine, no specific treatment,&quot; DR Congo&#39;s Health Minister Samuel-Roger Kamba said. &quot;This strain has a very high lethality rate, which can reach 50%.&quot; The strain -- which was first identified in 2007 -- has also killed a Congolese national in neighboring Uganda, officials said Saturday. Vaccines are only available for the Zaire strain, which was identified in 1976 and has a higher fatality rate of 60-90%. Health officials confirmed the latest outbreak on Friday in Ituri province in northeastern DRC, which borders Uganda and South Sudan, according to CDC Africa. &quot;We&#39;ve been seeing people die for the past two weeks,&quot; said Isaac Nyakulinda, a local civil society representative contacted by AFP by phone. &quot;There is nowhere to isolate the sick. They are dying at home, and their bodies are being handled by their family members.&quot; According to Kamba, patient zero was a nurse who reported to a health facility in Ituri&#39;s provincial capital, Bunia, on April 24, with symptoms suggesting Ebola. Symptoms of the disease include fever, hemorrhage and vomiting. &quot;The number of cases and deaths we are seeing in such a short timeframe, combined with the spread across several health zones and now across the border, is extremely concerning,&quot; said Trish Newport, MSF&#39;s emergency program manager, which is mobilizing medical and support staff to the area. Large-scale transport of medical equipment is a challenge in DR Congo, a country of more than 100 million people, which is four times the size of France, but has a poor communications infrastructure. High risk of spread&nbsp;It is the 17th Ebola outbreak to hit the DRC, and officials warned of a high risk of spread. &quot;There are significant uncertainties to the true number of infected persons and geographic spread,&quot; the WHO said. But it added the high positivity rate of initial samples, the confirmation of cases in two countries, and the increasing reports of suspected cases, &quot;all point toward a potentially much larger outbreak than what is currently being detected and reported, with significant local and regional risk of spread.&quot; The previous outbreak of Ebola -- which has killed around 15,000 people in Africa over the past 50 years, despite advances in vaccines and treatment -- was last August in the central region. That episode killed at least 34 people before being declared eradicated in December. Nearly 2,300 people died in the deadliest outbreak in the DRC between 2018 and 2020. Ebola, believed to have originated in bats, can cause severe bleeding and organ failure. Outbreaks over the past half-century have had a mortality rate among those affected ranging from 25% to&nbsp;90%, according to the WHO. The virus spreads from person to person through bodily fluids, including blood, and an infected person becomes contagious only after they develop symptoms. The incubation period can last up to 21 days.

The World Health Organization says the rare Bundibugyo Ebola strain is spreading in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda. The outbreak has killed dozens, but the WHO says it does not yet qualify as a pandemic emergency.

WHO declares international health emergency over rare Ebola strain

GENEVA: The World Health Organization (WHO) said Saturday it considered everyone on board a cruise ship hit with a deadly hantavirus outbreak as &quot;high-risk&quot; contacts who should be actively monitored for 42 days. There are nearly 150 people on board the MV Hondius at the centre of the outbreak that has killed three people, which is heading towards the waters off Tenerife. &quot;We classify everybody on board as what we call a high-risk contact,&quot; WHO&#39;s epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention director Maria Van Kerkhove told a social media event. Currently, &quot;there&#39;s nobody on board that has any symptoms&quot;, she said, adding though that &quot;active monitoring and follow-up of all the passengers and crew who disembark for a 42-day period&quot; was recommended. Van Kerkove stressed that the risk to the general public and to the people of the Canary Islands, where the Hondius is expected to anchor on Sunday, remained &quot;low&quot;. Three passengers from the ship &ndash; a Dutch husband and wife and a German woman &ndash; have died, out of eight confirmed and suspected cases of the rare disease, which usually spreads among rodents. The only hantavirus type that can transmit from person to person &ndash; the Andes virus &ndash; has been confirmed among the six cases who have tested positive, fueling international concern. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is heading to Tenerife to help coordinate the evacuation. Van Kerkhove said the United Nations health agency was coordinating with member states &ndash; in particular Spain and the Netherlands, the ship&#39;s operator, and experts around the world on the best way forward. On Saturday, WHO had briefed countries with nationals on board the ship about the plans for &quot;safe and dignified disembarkment&quot;, she said. The idea, she said, was for anyone who might be showing symptoms to &quot;immediately go to a medical evacuation plane and be taken to the Netherlands for care&quot;. Countries were organizing planes to take all those without symptoms back home, with some countries, like the United States and Canada, discussing sharing a plane, Van Kerkhove said. Everyone coming off the ship would meanwhile need to be monitored for 42 days, starting from their last point of exposure with a confirmed or suspected hantavirus case, she said. That means, she said, &quot;the clock has already started ticking&quot;.

Members of the Spanish Civil Guard wait for the arrival of the Cruise MV Hondius at port of Granadilla de Abona on the island of Tenerife in Spain's Canary Islands on May 9, 2026. (AFP)

WHO advises monitoring all passengers after a deadly cruise ship outbreak, ordering 42-day surveillance and follow-up after disembarkation, while saying public risk to the Canary Islands remains low.

Everyone on hantavirus-hit ship 'high-risk contact', must be monitored: WHO

GENEVA: There are six confirmed cases of hantavirus so far out of eight suspected ones following an outbreak on a cruise ship, the World Health Organization said Friday.&nbsp;&quot;As of 8 May, a total of eight cases, including three deaths (case fatality ratio 38%), have been reported. Six cases have been laboratory-confirmed as hantavirus infections, with all identified as Andes virus (ANDV),&quot; it said in a statement.&nbsp;&quot;WHO assesses the risk to the global population posed by this event as low and will continue to monitor the epidemiological situation and update the risk assessment&quot;.&nbsp;&quot;The risk for passengers and crew on the ship is considered moderate,&quot; it added.&nbsp;

The World Health Organization says six hantavirus cases linked to a cruise ship outbreak have been confirmed, including three deaths, while global risk remains low but moderate for passengers and crew aboard the vessel.

WHO says six hantavirus cases confirmed so far

GENEVA: Countries prepared Friday to repatriate passengers stranded aboard the MV Hondius after a deadly hantavirus outbreak killed three people and sickened several others during the trans-Atlantic cruise. The Dutch-flagged vessel, carrying around 150 people, is expected to arrive off Tenerife in Spain&rsquo;s Canary Islands on Sunday. Special flights will then take passengers to their home countries. The World Health Organization (WHO) said the outbreak posed a minimal risk to the general public despite confirmation of the Andes virus strain, the only hantavirus known to spread from person to person. Three passengers &mdash; a Dutch husband and wife and a German woman &mdash; have died, while others have fallen sick with the rare disease, which usually spreads among rodents. &ldquo;This is a dangerous virus, but only to the person who&#39;s really infected, and the risk to the general population remains absolutely low,&rdquo; WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier told reporters. &ldquo;The virus is not that contagious that it easily jumps from person to person,&rdquo; he added. The WHO said Friday there were five confirmed and three suspected cases of the virus, with an update due later. There are no suspected cases remaining on the ship. A KLM flight attendant who came into contact with an infected passenger and later showed mild symptoms tested negative for hantavirus, the WHO said. The infected passenger &mdash; the wife of the first person to die in the outbreak &mdash; had briefly boarded a Johannesburg-to-Netherlands flight on April 25 before being removed prior to takeoff. She died the following day in a Johannesburg hospital. Spanish authorities said a woman seated two rows behind the infected passenger on that flight was also being tested for hantavirus after developing symptoms in eastern Spain. She is in isolation in hospital. The MV Hondius left Ushuaia, Argentina, on April 1 for a cruise across the Atlantic Ocean to Cape Verde. Three suspected cases, including two crew members who later tested positive, were evacuated from Cape Verde to the Netherlands. German authorities said Friday the third person tested negative but would remain under observation. Two Dutch healthcare workers &mdash; an expert from the European Centres for Disease Control and a WHO representative &mdash; are now aboard the ship conducting a risk assessment. Spanish authorities said the ship will anchor off Tenerife and will not be allowed to dock. Passengers will be transferred to shore on a smaller vessel before being taken by bus to the airport. The evacuation must take place between Sunday and Monday due to likely adverse weather conditions afterward, the Canarian regional government said. Dockworkers in Tenerife protested Friday against the ship&rsquo;s arrival. British health authorities also said Friday there was a suspected case on Tristan da Cunha, one of the world&rsquo;s most isolated settlements with around 220 people.

A bank vole (Myodes glareolus), also known as the forest vole, is a small rodent that can transmit hantavirus, which is dangerous to humans. (AFP)

Countries are preparing to repatriate passengers from the MV Hondius after a deadly hantavirus outbreak killed three people and infected several others during the cruise across the Atlantic Ocean.

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