Ebola Response Hit as Thousands Flee DR Congo Camp
Thousands of displaced people have fled an Ebola-affected camp in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) after soldiers entered the site searching for weapons, triggering clashes and gunfire, according to Congolese and United Nations officials.
The Kigonze camp in Ituri Province, which had been home to about 19,000 displaced people, is now largely abandoned. The UN said the exodus is creating a major setback for efforts to contain Ebola, as health workers face difficulties tracking people who may have been exposed to the virus.
Health officials told Reuters that about 1,000 people identified as Ebola contacts were living at the camp, but only around one-fifth had subsequently been traced. The UN refugee agency has reported 88 confirmed Ebola cases and 56 deaths across displacement sites in the country, including Kigonze, although the figures are considered likely to be an underestimate.
The crisis was compounded by the burning of an Ebola transit centre at Kigonze, a facility used to isolate, test and provide care for suspected cases. The UN’s senior Ebola coordinator in the DRC, Julien Harneis, said losing the centre means losing critical treatment capacity and forces responders to rebuild services elsewhere.
The wider Ituri region is already facing a severe humanitarian crisis, with more than 1.1 million people displaced by conflict and violence. The UN has called for the protection of civilians and safe, unhindered humanitarian access, warning that the movement of displaced families could further complicate disease surveillance and contact tracing.
The development highlights a growing challenge for the Ebola response: health workers are trying to contain a deadly outbreak while insecurity is forcing the very communities under surveillance to scatter.
