The tally of DR Congo Ebola cases has climbed to 1,307 confirmed infections, including 377 deaths, according to an update issued late Monday by authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The official count listed cases in three provinces: Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu.
A separate report from Agence France-Presse, however, said the outbreak has now reached a fourth province, Haut-Uele, a northeastern region that borders South Sudan and the Central African Republic. That would push the outbreak into a wider stretch of the country, where health workers are already dealing with disease, fear, conflict and limited supplies. Ebola does not arrive politely, and this outbreak is showing just how rough it can be.
How far has the outbreak spread?
According to AFP, a source at the DRC’s National Institute of Biomedical Research said the case in Haut-Uele was detected after an infected person travelled from Bunia, the capital of Ituri province, to Haut-Uele. Another health source told AFP that the person has since died.
Authorities are working to trace how the virus spread and identify anyone who may have been in contact with the infected person. That contact tracing is urgent because Ebola spreads quickly through direct contact with the bodily fluids of people who are sick or who have died from the disease.
If Haut-Uele is confirmed as part of the outbreak zone, the DRC’s northeast would be affected. That region is home to about 15 million people, a large and vulnerable population spread across areas where roads, security and health infrastructure can all complicate the response.
Why Ituri is at the centre of the crisis
Ituri province remains the epicentre of the country’s latest Ebola outbreak, which began in May. It is the DRC’s 17th recorded Ebola outbreak, a reminder of how often the country has had to face the virus — and how hard that work still is.
The province is also conflict-hit, which makes outbreak control more difficult. Health workers need to reach sick people, isolate cases, trace contacts and conduct safe burials. Each of those steps depends on trust, access and equipment — and in parts of Ituri, all three are in short supply.
Funerals have played a major role in transmission. In the DRC, funeral rites can last several days, with relatives and friends often touching the body of the deceased. For many families, these rituals are acts of love and respect. For Ebola responders, they are also high-risk moments because the bodies of victims remain highly infectious.
Aid workers have spent weeks trying to arrange safe burials in affected communities, but mistrust keeps slowing them down.
What health workers say they need
Reporting from a treatment centre in Rwampara in Ituri province, Al Jazeera’s Catherine Wambua-Soi said medical teams are short of basic tools needed to contain the outbreak.
“These centres have been attacked several times. Last month, tents here were set on fire by an angry mob. Some Congolese still distrust those trying to help,” she said.
“They need more of everything: protective gear, medicines, rapid test kits … and body bags.”
Those shortages matter because Ebola response depends on speed. Rapid tests help identify cases sooner. Protective gear helps keep nurses, doctors and burial teams alive. Body bags allow teams to handle the dead safely while reducing the risk to grieving families.
The attacks on treatment centres also show the emotional pressure surrounding the response. People are scared, and in some communities, fear has turned into suspicion of the very teams trying to stop the disease. That is not unusual in outbreaks, but it is dangerous.
Why the public gathering ban is controversial
On Saturday, the government banned public gatherings in four provinces, including Kinshasa, the country’s capital, as it tries to slow the spread of the outbreak.
The timing has drawn political criticism. The order came before a planned July 8 protest in Kinshasa against constitutional reform. Opposition figures have called the ban “politically motivated.”
Public health restrictions only work when people trust the people imposing them. In the DRC, that trust is already under pressure from insecurity, grief, rumours and overstretched health facilities. A ban that overlaps with political tensions risks making that job harder, even if officials say the goal is disease control.
For families in the affected provinces, the questions are immediate and brutal: who is sick, who was exposed and whether help can arrive in time. For health workers, the task is to stop transmission while persuading communities that safety measures are not an attack on tradition, but a way to keep more families from planning the next funeral.
