BASANKUSU, Congo (AP) — Hundreds of people have tested positive for malaria in northwest Congo as health officials try to understand what may be behind a surge of illnesses that has surpassed 1,000 cases and killed at least 60 people.
The World Health Organization said that while malaria — a mosquito-borne disease — is prevalent in Congo's Equateur province, it has not yet ruled out other causes. It is unclear if the outbreaks are related, the U.N. health agency said in an update Thursday.
“Detailed epidemiological and clinical investigations, as well as further laboratory testing, are (still) needed,” WHO's Africa office said.
It said nearly 1,100 cases have been reported since the first outbreaks were discovered in two villages more than 100 miles apart in late January.
Africa’s top public health agency said infections have been detected in at five villages and that the agency is investigating whether water or food could be the cause of the infections, along with flu and typhoid.
However, tests are “pointing toward malaria,” Dr. Ngashi Ngongo of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in an online briefing Thursday.
The first outbreak was detected in the village of Boloko after three children ate a bat and died within 48 hours. WHO has recorded 12 cases and eight deaths in Boloko. Nearly half of the people who died did so within hours of the onset of symptoms, health officials said this week.
The village of Bomate, which is around 200 kilometers (125 miles) from Boloko, has been hardest hit: 98% of the cases and 86% of deaths have been recorded in Bomate in the Basankusu health zone, WHO said. Of 571 patients in Basankusu who were tested for malaria, 309 — 54.1% — tested positive, it said.
Patients have shown common malaria symptoms such as fever and body aches. Other symptoms include chills, sweating, stiff neck, runny or bleeding nose, cough, vomiting and diarrhea.
Eddy Djoboke said he and his family fled Bomate because they were afraid of falling sick. After they left, one of his children complained his neck and stomach hurt, suggesting he may have been infected before they fled.
“We were asked to have tests done and we are waiting for what happens next," Djoboke said.
Marthe Biyombe, said her child became infected in Bomate and was suffering from body aches and fever. She said the hospital struggled to treat her child because of a lack of medication, but that she was able to buy drugs privately and WHO doctors eventually arrived with more supplies.
“When we arrived at the hospital, we went two weeks without medicine. There were no medicines and we bought the medicines elsewhere (before) the WHO doctors came and started giving us the medicines,” Biyombe said. She did not describe the drugs given to her child.
Experts say access to the sick has been hindered by the remote locations of the affected villages and that several people died before medical teams were able to reach them.
Asadu reported from Abuja. Associated Press journalist Rodney Muhumuza in Kampala, Uganda contributed.
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The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
Men sit outside the general hospital in Basankusu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, where some victims of unidentified illnesses are being treated, Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Guy Masele Sanganga)
A hemorrhagic fever outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has left more than 50 people dead. (AP Graphic)
Roy Cooper’s winning streak in North Carolina elections will be tested on Tuesday as the former Democratic governor faces off with President Donald Trump’s handpicked candidate Michael Whatley in a state that often sends Republicans to the U.S. Senate.
The race is one of Democrats’ best chances to flip a Republican-held seat as they try to win back control of the chamber. The incumbent, Thom Tillis, is retiring after clashing with Trump last year, setting the stage for an open contest.
Trump won North Carolina in all three of his presidential campaigns, and the Senate campaign will reveal how much his standing has slipped at a moment of widespread frustration over inflation and the war with Iran.
Whatley, 58, a former state and national party chair, has never held elected office before, and he’s trailed Cooper in fundraising. Republicans shifted campaign cash away from North Carolina in October, a sign that they were pessimistic about Whatley’s chances.
Democrats need to add four seats in the Senate to gain control, and Cooper, 69, is one of the party’s prized recruits. He previously won four terms as state attorney general and two terms as governor.
A loss would dampen Democrats’ hopes of winning the majority and potentially end Cooper’s political career with his first statewide defeat.
Cooper has focused on the economy, pledging to “make stuff cost less.” He was broadly critical of Trump’s policies, especially tariffs and the Iran war. But he has typically avoided personal broadsides and consistently pledged a bipartisan approach should he reach Capitol Hill.
“I saw this administration take root, and I’d see two or three things happening almost every single day that reached a new level of chaos, any one of which we could talk about for hours. And I said, ‘Man, I’ve got to do something about this,’” Cooper said at a recent campaign rally.
Still, he promises, “I’m going to be a strong, independent senator for North Carolina.”
Cooper also has emphasized his support for public education and the expansion of Medicaid insurance coverage while he was governor, drawing contrasts with Whatley and Republicans.
Whatley has not tried to distance himself from the president, as some of his fellow Republicans have done across the country. He’s welcomed Trump and Vice President JD Vance to North Carolina for campaign events multiple times.
“I am honored that we are going to have the greatest president of our lifetime, Donald J. Trump, here,” Whatley said ahead of a metro Charlotte rally with Trump.
He has also spent most of his campaign energy promoting Trump’s policies more generally — especially the “big beautiful bill” that included tax cuts — and accusing Cooper of being soft on violent criminals as governor and attorney general.
Trump has escalated those attacks, which Cooper rejects, using the Charlotte-area rally to describe North Carolina’s cities as “blood-soaked killing fields.” North Carolina’s violent crime rate ranks in the middle third of states, according to FBI statistics.
The president also has drawn fault lines over the response to Hurricane Helene. The 2024 storm battered western North Carolina in the final months of Cooper’s second term as governor and as Trump was campaigning to return to the White House. Trump said Cooper “did nothing” to help storm victims. Cooper has long rejected that accusation, pointing to the work state and local governments did with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which Trump has since attempted to gut.
Whatley’s biggest challenge will be maximizing Republican turnout while winning over North Carolina’s growing swath of independents. Registered Democrats and Republicans in North Carolina are split about evenly, while independent voters outnumber both.
Cooper’s undefeated electoral record shows he’s been able to add independent voters to his Democratic base — enough that both of his elections as governor, 2016 and 2020, came at the same time that North Carolina voters opted for Trump over Democratic presidential nominees.
President Donald Trump listens as North Carolina Republican U.S. Senate candidate Michael Whatley speaks at a campaign rally at Pitt–Greenville Airport, Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026, in Greenville, N.C. (AP Photo/Matt Ramey)
