Congo faces dual threat of rare Ebola strain and community distrust as suspected cases near 1,000
A Red Cross volunteer in eastern Congo faces both a rare type of Ebola with no available vaccine and hostility from residents as public health efforts to contain the outbreak intensify. Cases are nearing 1,000 but mistrust and armed conflict are hampering the response.
Community resistance and health worker safety
Vanny Birungi, a volunteer with the Red Cross in Bunia, Congo, said she and her colleagues are often met with stones and verbal abuse while conducting public awareness campaigns about the outbreak. “We continue to tell them that the disease is out there. Some accept, and others don’t,” Birungi told The Associated Press on Monday, May 25, 2026, as she spoke with groups in a working-class neighborhood under the scorching sun.The outbreak involves the Bundibugyo type of Ebola, a strain for which no vaccine or treatment exists. Aid workers are especially vulnerable in this volatile region, where residents have long faced threats from armed groups that have killed thousands and displaced many more in recent years. Trust is scarce among a traumatized population wary of outsiders, even those trying to contain a rapidly spreading outbreak that experts say was discovered weeks late.
Pierre Basola, a 56-year-old resident of Bunia, expressed suspicion of the response effort. “These people should stop bothering us. They just want to get rich. Let’s not forget that Ebola is a white man’s invention,” he said, adding: “Stop talking to me anyway.”
Attacks on healthcare facilities and body handling disputes
Three times in the past week, healthcare facilities have been attacked. On Sunday, angry young men stormed a hospital treating Ebola patients, forcing medical staff to evacuate them as gunfire rang out. On Saturday, a group of residents set fire to a tent for suspected and confirmed Ebola cases run by Doctors Without Borders in Mongbwalu, causing more than a dozen people suspected to have the virus to flee. On Thursday, a center in Rwampara was burned after relatives were barred from retrieving the body of a man suspected to have Ebola.Anger is amplified by infection prevention practices that prevent loved ones from handling bodies in final rites following an illness some have described as sudden and dramatic, with vomiting and bleeding. The Ebola virus is spread through close contact with sick or deceased patients’ bodily fluids, such as sweat, blood, feces or vomit. Experts say healthcare workers and family members caring for patients face the highest risk.
Weakened surveillance and funding constraints
Surveillance for such diseases has been weakened by United States and other aid cuts, according to experts. Francois Kasereka, a member of the Congo Scouts movement, also participated in a public sensitisation campaign in Bunia on Saturday, May 23, 2026.Context: Similar challenges have arisen in past Ebola outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of Congo, notably the 2018-2020 outbreak in North Kivu and Ituri provinces, where attacks on health workers and facilities occurred amid armed conflict and community mistrust. In 2014, an outbreak in West Africa also faced initial community resistance that delayed containment efforts.