South Kivu Clears Ebola as National Bundibugyo Outbreak Remains Active

Kinshasa, DRC, August 12, 2026 - The director general of the National Institute of Public Health (INSP) told a Health Ministry strategic coordination meeting on August 12 that South Kivu is out of the Ebola epidemic after more than 42 days without a new confirmed case-elsewhere in the same briefing, officials also cited 73 days without a new case in the province. Much of South Kivu remains under Alliance Fleuve Congo/M23 control. The provincial outbreak was declared May 21 in Miti-Murhesa (Kabare territory); two patients cured at the Lwiro Ebola Treatment Centre were discharged June 19, after the first confirmed case died shortly after admission. As of August 10, national figures cited 886 recoveries, 4,449 Bundibugyo positives across five provinces, and 2,061 deaths, with 53 of 246 health zones affected. Ituri remains the epicentre; transmission also continues in North Kivu and Haut-Uele.

A day earlier, on August 11, Dr. Charles Mbusa Munyumu-Butembo’s only based neurosurgeon, trained in Dakar and France and formerly at Beaujon Hospital in Paris-died of Ebola at the Katwa ETC. He had arrived in June 2025 to build local neurosurgery and stroke care. Butembo remained North Kivu’s epicentre, with 220 of 325 provincial confirmed cases as of July 27. On August 8, Katwa discharged a nurse and an eight-month-old baby cured on August 7, after four other patients including two health workers left on August 2. Lubero health zone recorded its first confirmed cases from August 4, becoming a third zone in Lubero territory after Musienene and Masereka. Contact follow-up stood at 77% by August 5. New ETCs were under construction in Musienene and Beni, with another planned for Tshopo. Situation figures cited around August 8 put cases at 4,053 across five provinces, recoveries at 793 after 17 new discharges, and deaths at 1,850 since the May Bundibugyo declaration-the country’s 17th Ebola outbreak-illustrating how tallies rose between early August and the August 10 national update.

On August 5, a boat traced after an Ebola-linked death embarked from Kisangani arrived at Maluku port in Kinshasa with about 200 passengers under naval escort; tents were set up for screening and isolation, with WHO support for entry-point preparedness. A Public Health Emergency Operations Centre note covering through August 3 had recommended tracing an MVE death on a vessel that left Kisangani between July 19 and 21, and flagged high-risk contact resistance at Kabondo plus PPE and laboratory stock strain. Tshopo then counted seven confirmed cases and five deaths, with no new confirmation in the previous 24 hours. The same day, the United States announced an additional USD 242 million for Ebola response in the DRC, Uganda, and neighbours, lifting direct U.S. Ebola aid above USD 512 million since a June 16 G7 pledge, while Level 4 “Do Not Travel” advisories for the DRC, Uganda, and South Sudan remained in force. On August 4, Africa CDC director general Jean Kaseya visited Bunia with WHO partners nearly 80 days after the outbreak declaration, urging faster case detection, contact tracing, protection of health workers, closer testing and care for communities, and more resources, against a backdrop of health-worker strikes over unpaid bonuses in Ituri and insecurity that has included attacks on treatment centres.