Deaths at Congo displacement camp raise fears of faster Ebola spread

BRAZZAVILLE: More than 30 people have died since the beginning of May at a camp for displaced civilians in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, according to camp officials and aid workers, raising concern that Ebola may be spreading rapidly in the site.

The deaths were reported at Kigonze camp in Bunia, the centre of the country’s Ebola outbreak. Camp officials said the number of fatalities was unlike anything previously seen there. Desire Grodya Bapi, a spokesperson for the camp, said Kigonze, which houses more than 15,000 people, would normally record one to three deaths in a month.

It was not possible to verify the cause of every death because, until Thursday, patients or relatives had refused testing, according to the camp spokesperson and the Catholic aid organisation Caritas. However, the people who died had shown symptoms including headaches, fever and vomiting, which are associated with Ebola, Grodya, a bereaved father, three aid sources and a civil society leader told Reuters.

Camp president Dz’djo Ndrutsi Etienne said 10 people had been buried in the week alone. Grodya said health workers had collected samples from five victims and some of the results had confirmed Ebola. Three aid sources also said samples from some of the victims who died this week had tested positive, though they did not specify how many.

Justin Zanamuzi, director of Caritas, said his team saw several bodies covered with sheets on Wednesday, including those of a pregnant woman and children. Footage shared on Thursday by a civil society leader and verified by Reuters showed health teams wearing protective suits disinfecting more bodies and preparing small coffins near a crucifix as mourners cried.

Speaking about community resistance to medical checks, Zanamuzi said “Our team tried to persuade people to accept doctors to inspect the bodies. They completely refused.”

Congolese authorities first declared the Ebola outbreak on May 15, though officials said the deaths had started earlier in the month. The situation at Kigonze has raised fears that the disease may be circulating unnoticed among the more than five million displaced people in eastern Congo, where testing resistance and poor sanitation complicate containment efforts.

Sanitation concerns and aid cuts

Four aid workers said the jump in deaths had underlined how exposed communities had become to diseases such as Ebola after reductions in funding for water, sanitation and hygiene services. These services are considered critical in controlling a disease that spreads through bodily fluids, including human waste.

United Nations data showed funding for toilets and handwashing facilities in Congo fell by more than half between 2024 and 2025 to about $38 million, while this year’s $80 million appeal is only 21 per cent funded. Congo has hundreds of camps sheltering civilians displaced by conflict, some accommodating as many as 100,000 people.

Ebola deaths have also been recorded in another camp in Ituri province, which accounts for more than 90 per cent of the nearly 900 confirmed cases. At Kigonze, large families live in the same plastic shelters set less than a metre apart, while children move through dirt lanes barefoot. Toilets at the camp are marked USAID, and one aid source said the US agency had helped pay for their construction.

But Grodya and an aid source said the number of toilets was insufficient and they frequently overflowed. Grodya said “The latrines, they fill up very quickly, and people have to empty them themselves, with their bare hands”.

Washington has been the leading supporter of water, sanitation and hygiene services in Congo and provided more than $60 million for such work in 2024, according to a summary shared by a former USAID official. The Trump administration has defended the cuts by saying it wants to prioritise life-saving humanitarian assistance. The United States has committed more than $375 million in direct Ebola funding, though Reuters said it could not determine exactly how much, if any, is now reaching Kigonze. Four aid groups — Mercy Corps, Danish Refugee Council, CARE International and Oxfam — said US-funded sanitation projects for displaced people in the three Ebola-affected provinces had been reduced or discontinued since last year’s cuts. Mercy Corps said that after building 82 taps and more than 400 public toilets serving over 125,000 displaced people in 2024, funding reductions meant that fewer than 19,000 people were being served this year by six taps and no public toilets.

One resident, Kato Lonu, 47, said he had lost two children, including a six-month-old.

“These are conditions that no human being should have to live in. If you look around, people are dying one after another.”, he stated.