Democratic Republic of the Congo

An Ebola epidemic in a conflict-riven region of Democratic Republic of Congo is out of control and could become as serious as the outbreak that devastated three countries in West Africa between 2013 and 2016, experts and aid chiefs have warned.

Three suspects in the killing of two U.N. investigators in Democratic Republic of Congo escaped from prison overnight, a defence lawyer in the case said on Tuesday.

Strengthening both security and the Ebola response effort is essential to contain the growing outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), UN health agency’s officials said on Tuesday, following a visit to the epicentre of what is already the worst outbreak in the country’s history.

[…] By adopting the EPON’s methodology framework, the report has evaluated the effectiveness of the UN peacekeeping efforts in the DRC across eight critical dimensions. A number of significant strategic and operational impacts and three constraints that have undermined UN efforts have also been identified.

The new downsizing plans announced on April 22 by Leila Zerrougui, the head of MONUSCO, should be completed by the end of June ahead of the UN’s new financial year. The 764 job cuts will not affect military personnel but mostly concern Congolese civilians. Eight offices will be shut down in Dungu, Mbandaka, Bandundu, Kamina, Matadi, Mbuji-Mayi as well as Kisangani and Lubumbashi.

Agencies blame the recent surge in transmission on a continued lack of trust in communities and violent attacks on treatment centres in February and March, which forced health workers to wind down some services.

Mistrust of first responders and widespread misinformation propagated by some community leaders has led many in affected areas of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo to refuse vaccinations. Instead, they turn to traditional healers, whose clinics have contributed to the haemorrhagic fever's spread.

The Congolese army mounted a series of operations between April 6 and 8 in the eastern province of South Kivu aimed at regaining territory against the Burundian rebel groups National Liberation Forces (FNL) and the Burundian Republican Forces (FOREBU).

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday said it had reconvened an expert panel to consider whether an outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo constitutes a public health emergency of international concern. … Declaring the outbreak a “public health emergency of international concern”, or PHEIC, would ramp up the international response with a formal alert that puts governments on notice and helps to mobilise resources and research.

Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) new president must swiftly form a government and seize the moment as groups, anxious for political change, lay down their arms, the head of the UN mission in Congo warned on Saturday. … “It’s an extremely important dynamic that ought to be seized upon”, she said in Dinard where she was invited to talk about sexual violence as a weapon of war.