BUNIA, Congo\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Aid workers rushed supplies Thursday to the center of Congo\u2019s outbreak of a rare type of Ebola virus while beleaguered medical personnel struggled with a lack of equipment, a distrustful population and armed groups in a volatile region. <\/p>\n
A white cargo plane with aid donated by the European Union delivered masks, gloves, boots and medications \u2014 all of which are in short supply \u2014 to the northeastern town of Bunia at the heart of the outbreak in Congo\u2019s Ituri province. U.N.-branded forklifts lifted several cases into trucks.<\/p>\n
Health workers with scant supplies have been struggling to contain an outbreak of the Bundibugyo virus, a kind of Ebola that has no approved treatment or vaccine. In some areas, doctors have resorted to wearing expired medical masks while treating suspected patients. <\/p>\n
Dangers faced by health workers have been heightened by anger among residents over the stringent medical protocols for dealing with the bodies of victims, which clash with local burial rites. Residents have launched at least three attacks against health centers in Ituri province. <\/p>\n
Aid donated by the EU is expected to arrive in batches over the next eight days, J\u00e9r\u00f4me Kouachi, head of emergency operations at UNICEF in Congo, told The Associated Press. <\/p>\n
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was on his way to Congo to see the efforts first-hand efforts. The WHO has declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern, in the hope of ramping up aid.<\/p>\n
The United States on Thursday said it is increasing its aid to Congo and Uganda by $80 million, bringing its commitment to more than $112 million since the outbreak. <\/p>\n
The additional money would pay for personal protective equipment for health care workers, Ebola test kits, support for health screening at airports and contact tracing, the U.S. State Department said.<\/p>\n
The Congolese government has confirmed more than 1,000 suspected cases, with at least 220 deaths, since it declared an outbreak on May 15. But the virus had been spreading undetected for weeks, and the WHO suspects it is much larger than what has been reported.<\/p>\n
The virus has also reached neighboring Uganda, which has confirmed seven cases and one death. <\/p>\n
On Wednesday, the Congolese government said the first survivor to recover from the virus had left a health center.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are trying to catch up,\u201d Congo Foreign Minister Th\u00e9r\u00e8se Kayikwamba Wagner said earlier this week. \u201cIt is a race against the clock.\u201d<\/p>\n
The response on the ground has been hampered by multiple challenges, including customs\u2019 red tape, insufficient storage facilities, bad roads and weak telecommunications, humanitarian agencies said in a report on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Tedros on Wednesday called for a ceasefire in a region where armed groups have staged violent attacks for decades. \u201cWe cannot build community trust or isolate the sick while bombs are falling,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Tucked in the northeastern part of Congo close to the Ugandan border, Ituri province has been reeling from attacks by the Allied Democratic Force, a rebel group allied with the Islamic State group, and a coalition of ethnic militias. In early May, the ADF killed at least 40 people and burned several homes in Ituri.<\/p>\n
The illness has also been reported in two Congolese provinces south of Ituri \u2014 North Kivu and South Kivu, where the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group controls many key cities, including Goma and Bukavu. The rebels have reported two cases. The region\u2019s main airport in Goma, which doubles as a staging ground for humanitarian efforts into the region, has been closed since January 2025, when M23 seized the city.<\/p>\n
The conflict has precipitated one of the world\u2019s largest humanitarian crises, with at least 7 million people displaced in eastern Congo.<\/p>\n
Kabumba and Adetayo write for the Associated Press. Adetayo reported from Lagos, Nigeria. AP writer Mathew Lee contributed to this report from Washington.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BUNIA, Congo\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Aid workers rushed supplies Thursday to the center of Congo\u2019s outbreak of a rare type of Ebola…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54941,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[32503,4932,471,1475,32508,32509,32502,28872,39,40,32507,26073,31765,24073,32505,32506,32504],"class_list":["post-54940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-eu","tag-aid-supply","tag-airport","tag-associated-press","tag-attack","tag-bundibugyo-virus","tag-center","tag-congo","tag-ebola-outbreak","tag-eu","tag-european-union","tag-health-worker","tag-heart","tag-ituri-province","tag-outbreak","tag-several-case","tag-supply-thursday","tag-volatile-region"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54940\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}