![\"Ebola](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Congo-Ebola-death-toll.jpg\")
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Red Cross workers carry the body of a person who died of Ebola into a coffin at a health center in Rwampara, Congo, May 20, 2026. | Moses Sawasawa \/ AP<\/p>\n
The people of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have long had to contend with the forces of neocolonialism staging coups, assassinating its popular leader, fomenting conflicts, and stealing the resources from under their\u00a0feet.<\/p>\n
Add to this the deadly Ebola virus and you have to wonder why what is happening in the DRC, as well as Uganda, is not getting both more humanitarian aid targeted and more media\u00a0coverage.<\/p>\n
The population as well as health workers in the DRC, the epicentre of the outbreak, have been struggling to contain an outbreak of the Bundibugyo virus, a kind of Ebola that has no approved treatment or\u00a0vaccine.<\/p>\n
Health workers have scant resources to help them to support the people being engulfed by this virus. In some areas, doctors have resorted to wearing expired medical masks while treating suspected\u00a0patients.<\/p>\n
According to the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO), 1,077 suspected cases and 238 suspected deaths have been recorded as of the end of last\u00a0week. Experts say the even worse news is that the number of deaths and suspected cases are both going to\u00a0soar.<\/p>\n
The stark truth is that if this killer virus was hitting anywhere in Europe or North America there would not be the same\u00a0silence. The Ebola outbreak in the DRC has been declared a public health emergency of international concern by the WHO. But the declaration has largely fallen on deaf\u00a0ears.<\/p>\n
It is hard to escape the conclusion that African lives really do not matter to the rich former colonial\u00a0powers. Few in Africa expect the United States government, for instance, to care much about the 1.4 billion people of the mother continent.<\/p>\n
As we saw during the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus in the U.S., the first Trump administration really didn\u2019t care to make sure that its own people had access to treatments or even masks during a pandemic that killed\u00a0millions. The second Trump administration certainly won\u2019t care about Africans whom it routinely disparages in the most outrageous racist fashion.<\/p>\n
This strain of Ebola takes two to 21 days for symptoms to appear. They come on suddenly and start like the flu or malaria, with fever, headache, and\u00a0tiredness. As the disease progresses, vomiting and diarrhea develop, and it can lead to organ failure. Some, but not all, patients develop internal and external\u00a0bleeding.<\/p>\n
The virus spreads from one person to another by contact with infected bodily fluids such as blood or\u00a0vomit.<\/p>\n
The bottom line is that catching Ebola is a virtual death sentence that can be infectious to anyone that even touches the dead\u00a0body.<\/p>\n
The attacks by people on Ebola treatment centers in the eastern DRC highlight the serious challenges faced by the population as well as health workers and local\u00a0authorities. Last week, angry young men stormed a hospital treating Ebola patients in the town of Mongbwalu in Ituri province, the epicenter of the\u00a0spread.<\/p>\n
The attackers demanded the handing over of the bodies of two of their relatives killed by the\u00a0virus. After medical staff told the people of the dangers, they were forced to scramble to evacuate the patients as gunfire rang out in the area as the relatives refused to take no for an\u00a0answer.<\/p>\n
In another attack on a treatment center, 18 Ebola patients were forced to flee and are, according to available information, still in\u00a0hiding.<\/p>\n
But alongside Ebola the DRC is also facing the perfect storm of emergencies. It was already one of the world\u2019s worst humanitarian\u00a0disasters. Eastern Congo has for years seen attacks by dozens of separate rebel and militant groups, some of them with links to foreign countries or the extremist Islamic State\u00a0group.<\/p>\n
While the DRC government only loosely controls Ituri province, the Allied Democratic Forces, a Ugandan Islamist militia linked to ISIS, is responsible for violent attacks against civilian\u00a0targets.<\/p>\n
Before the outbreak, the medical group Doctors Without Borders said in an assessment that the insecurity in Ituri had worsened recently, causing doctors and nurses to flee and leaving overwhelmed health facilities and \u201ccatastrophic\u00a0conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Around a million people are already displaced in\u00a0Ituri. This means the deadly Ebola outbreak is spreading in communities that are already in dire\u00a0straits.<\/p>\n
Experts fear the disease might spread to the large displacement camps near the city of Bunia, where the first Ebola cases were\u00a0reported.<\/p>\n
So, where is help coming from? The answer is\u00a0nowhere.<\/p>\n
International aid cuts last year by the former colonial powers and the U.S. were devastating for eastern\u00a0Congo. Aid groups say they don\u2019t have sufficient resources to help the population. So, the question arises as to whether Africa is able to help\u00a0itself.<\/p>\n
In the longer-run, Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) must place itself in a position where it does not have to rely on outside support for what is likely to be a growing number of emergencies, especially as the impact of the climate crisis begins to fully take\u00a0hold.<\/p>\n
The healthcare landscape of SSA is complex but also hampered by the actions of the (mis)leaders who have siphoned off millions (if not billions) that should have gone toward building the infrastructure of the continent after what Walter Rodney famously described as the continent\u2019s deliberate\u00a0\u201cunderdevelopment.\u201d<\/p>\n
SSA already grapples with a disproportionate burden of infectious diseases in addition to Ebola, including HIV\/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria, alongside a rising prevalence of non-communicable\u00a0diseases.<\/p>\n
There is a severe shortage of trained healthcare professionals, many of whom prefer, not surprisingly, to go and ply their trade in the former colonizer countries where they can expect to get relatively better\u00a0paid.<\/p>\n
There are urban\u2013rural healthcare disparities and financial barriers that make the situation worse, alongside those mentioned\u00a0earlier.<\/p>\n
The removal of the (mis)leaders who have fleeced their nations at the expense of people struggling to merely survive is a necessary starting point for reform on the continent of\u00a0Africa.<\/p>\n
The Alliance of Sahel States\u2014Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger\u2014has demonstrated that the removal of corrupt rulers can open the possibility that rich natural resources can be used for the benefit of the\u00a0people.<\/p>\n
This can help to point the way towards three key pillars that can help to transform healthcare in\u00a0SSA. These are the strengthening of healthcare financing, improving governance and policy frameworks, and developing healthcare infrastructure and\u00a0technology.<\/p>\n
What is certain is that the DRC, in common with all other parts of the African continent, must break the Western-built cycle of\u00a0dependency.<\/p>\n
It is a dependency that ensures the former colonial powers and their new master, the U.S., continue to call the shots in Africa with the promise of humanitarian aid and sweeteners for the\u00a0(mis)leaders.<\/p>\n
These are scenarios that merely allow the colonizers to continue plundering the wealth of the\u00a0continent. There can be no rebirth of the African continent until this cycle of dependency is\u00a0broken.<\/p>\n
Morning Star<\/p>\n
\nWe hope you appreciated this article. At\u00a0People\u2019s World, we believe news and information should be free and accessible to all, but we need your help. Our journalism is free of corporate influence and paywalls because we are totally reader-supported. Only you, our readers and supporters, make this possible. If you enjoy reading\u00a0People\u2019s World\u00a0and the stories we bring you, please\u00a0support our work by donating or becoming a monthly sustainer today<\/a>. Thank you!<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCONTRIBUTOR<\/p>\n
![\"Roger](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/RogerM-1-200x200.jpg\")
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