On Friday, UNHCR confirmed that at least five of the Ituri province’s 69 displacement camps have reported Ebola cases, compounding what is already a devastating outbreak.
Local authorities report that there have been almost 4,000 cases of Ebola and and more than 1,800 deaths – centered on Ituri – since the outbreak was declared on 15 May.
UNHCR stressed that no cases have been reported among refugees or asylum-seekers, which could threaten transmission beyond the DRC.
Still, the virus is overwhelming response efforts currently, according to World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
“We all agree that we must urgently and massively scale up all our efforts across all pillars of the response and by all partners,” Tedros tweeted while visiting the capital, Kinshasa.
Heightened risks for the camps
The provinces of Ituri, North Kivu, South Kivu, Haut-Uele and Tshopo – where Ebola cases have been confirmed – host around 4.4 million internally displaced people.
Provinces affected by the Ebola outbreak overlap with those most affected by the current conflict in the eastern DRC.
In 2021, the Rwandan-backed and Tutsi-led M23 militia took up arms against the Congolese military. The fighting involving multiple armed groups, which traces back to the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, has already displaced more than eight million people during decades of fighting.
Internally displaced people living in camps often lack water and sanitation infrastructure, and many distrust health services, creating a fertile environment for Ebola to spread, UNHCR warned.
Slowing the spread
The UN continues to work with humanitarian partners and local authorities in the DRC to scale up surveillance, laboratory testing, treatment and community engagement activities, and UN peacekeepers there are working to prevent attacks on healthcare facilities.
In May, UN relief chief Tom Fletcher announced an up to $60 million allocation from the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) toward Ebola response, and the WHO and its partners continue to build and support Ebola Treatment Centres.
With new cases doubling in some hotspots over the past week, Tedros called for countermeasures to intensify, including strengthening coordination with the Government, protecting and supporting health workers, and accelerating access to care and safe burials.
“WHO remains committed to working alongside the Government of the DRC, Africa CDC (the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention) and all partners, and we will stop this outbreak, together,” Tedros wrote.
