\n \ud83d\udcc5 May 21, 2026
\n \u00a0\u2022\u00a0
\n \ud83d\udc64 Henry Nigeria
\n \u00a0\u2022\u00a0
\n \ud83d\udcc1 FIFA WORLD CUP
\n \u00a0\u2022\u00a0
\n \ud83d\udd51 3 min read\n <\/p>\n
The Democratic Republic of Congo national football team has moved its pre-World Cup training camp from Kinshasa to Belgium following the recent Ebola outbreak in the country.<\/p>\n
Officials confirmed that the camp, initially scheduled to hold in the Congolese capital for three days, will now take place in Europe.<\/p>\n
While the team\u2019s press officer did not directly state that the health crisis influenced the decision, the relocation comes just days after authorities announced a fresh Ebola outbreak in eastern DR Congo.<\/p>\n
The latest outbreak, the 17th recorded in the country, has reportedly resulted in 139 deaths from nearly 600 suspected cases of the deadly haemorrhagic disease.<\/p>\n
The team official also revealed that no home-based players were included in the national squad for the tournament preparations.<\/p>\n
DR Congo are preparing for only their second appearance at the FIFA World Cup, having previously featured in the 1974 edition when the country competed under the name Zaire.<\/p>\n
The Congolese side will begin their campaign in the United States, Mexico and Canada-hosted tournament against Portugal in Houston on June 17.<\/p>\n
They are also scheduled to face Colombia in Guadalajara on June 24 before concluding their group-stage fixtures against Uzbekistan in Atlanta on June 28.<\/p>\n
Despite concerns surrounding travel restrictions linked to the outbreak, a United States official stated on Tuesday that the Congolese team would still be permitted to enter the country for the competition.<\/p>\n
Current US health regulations restrict entry for non-Americans who have recently visited DR Congo, Uganda or South Sudan within the last 21 days because of the Ebola situation.<\/p>\n
However, officials noted that the national team had already been training in Europe, which may exempt them from the restrictions.<\/p>\n
The official added that even if the players had recently been in DR Congo, they would likely face enhanced health screening procedures rather than a total travel ban.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\ud83d\udcc5 May 21, 2026 \u00a0\u2022\u00a0 \ud83d\udc64 Henry Nigeria \u00a0\u2022\u00a0 \ud83d\udcc1 FIFA WORLD CUP \u00a0\u2022\u00a0 \ud83d\udd51 3 min read…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16544,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,4872,10794,3933],"class_list":["post-16543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-belgium","tag-belgium","tag-dr-congo","tag-ebola","tag-fifa-world-cup"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/116610623438046294","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}