BUNIA, Congo (AP) — At least 87 deaths have been reported in Congo's new Ebola disease outbreak in eastern Ituri province, the Africa CDC said Saturday, warning of an "active community transmission" as health workers raced to intensify screening and contact tracing to contain the disease.
Meanwhile, Associated Press journalists in Ituri’s capital, Bunia, interviewed locals who recounted their fears and constant burials.
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A woman sanitises her hands in front of Kibuli Muslim Hospital in Kampala, Uganda, Saturday, May 16, 2026. (AP Photo/ Hajarah Nalwadda)
A health worker wearing protective gear walks outside the a hospital in Bunia, Congo, Saturday, May 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Jorkim Jotham Pituwa)
Ambulances are parked outside a hospital in Bunia, Congo, Saturday, May 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Constant Same Bagalwa)
People wait to have their temperature taken in front of Kibuli Muslim Hospital in Kampala, Uganda, Saturday, May 16, 2026. (AP Photo/ Hajarah Nalwadda)
A health official uses a thermometer to screen people in front of Kibuli Muslim Hospital in Kampala, Uganda, Saturday, May 16, 2026. (AP Photo/ Hajarah Nalwadda)
FILE - This undated colorized transmission electron micrograph file image made available by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows an Ebola virus virion. (Frederick Murphy/CDC via AP, File)
FILE - A health worker sprays disinfectant on his colleague after working at an Ebola treatment center in Beni, eastern Congo, Sept 9, 2018. (AP Photo/Al-hadji Kudra Maliro, File)
People meet at the Ituri Provincial Health Directorate for the first Ebola response meeting in Bunia, Congo, Friday, May 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Jorkim Jotham Pituwa)
A general view of Bunia, where Ebola outbreaks have been confirmed in Ituri province, Congo, Friday, May 15, 2026. (AP Photo)
“Every day, people are dying ... and this has been going on for about a week. In a single day, we bury two, three or even more people,” said Jean Marc Asimwe, a resident of Bunia. “At this point, we don’t really know what kind of disease it is.”
Ebola is highly contagious and can be contracted through bodily fluids such as vomit, blood, or semen. The disease it causes is rare, but severe and often fatal.
Officials first announced the latest outbreak in Congo on Friday with 65 deaths and 246 suspected cases. By Saturday, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention reported 336 suspected and 13 confirmed cases. Four people have died among the confirmed cases.
At an online briefing on Saturday, Africa CDC Director-General Dr. Jean Kaseya said the first cases were reported in Mongwalu health zone, a high-traffic mining area. “Cases subsequently migrated to Rwampara and Bunia as patients sought medical care, enabling spread across three health zones,” he said.
A high number of active cases remain within the local community, particularly in Mongwalu, Kaseya said, “significantly complicating containment and contact tracing efforts.”
Insecurity in Ituri, where Islamic State-backed militants carry out rampant deadly attacks, continues to restrict surveillance and rapid response operations, he added.
Of the 87 deaths, 57 are in the Mongwalu health zone, 27 in the Rwampara health zone and three in Bunia, Ituri's main city.
Congolese Health Minister Samuel-Roger Kamba said late Friday that test results confirmed the Bundibugyo virus, a variant of the disease that has been less prominent in Congo’s past outbreaks. This is Congo’s 17th outbreak since Ebola first emerged in the country in 1976.
The suspected index case in the latest outbreak is a nurse who died at a hospital in Bunia, Kamba said. He said the case dates back three weeks to April 24.
He did not say whether samples from the nurse were tested, but said the person presented symptoms suggestive of Ebola.
Uganda confirmed Friday an Ebola case that authorities said was “imported” from Congo. The person died at the Kibuli Muslim Hospital in Uganda’s capital, Kampala, on May 14.
The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention had said it is concerned about the risk of further spread due to the proximity of affected areas to Uganda and South Sudan.
The body of the patient who died in Kampala was later taken back to Congo and no other local case has been confirmed, Uganda’s Health Ministry said.
On Saturday, people were being screened at the entrance of the Kibuli Muslim Hospital.
Ismail Kigongo, who resides in Kampala, said the new outbreak reminded him of his father, whom he lost during the COVID-19 pandemic. “I really get scared because I remember burying my father without looking at his body,” he said.
Kenya, Uganda's neighbor, said Saturday that there is only a “moderate risk of importation” of the Ebola virus due to regional travel. Kenya’s government said it has formed an Ebola preparedness team and has strengthened surveillance at all points of entry.
Congo has experience managing Ebola outbreaks but often faces logistical challenges in delivering expertise and supplies to affected regions.
As Africa’s second-largest country by land area, Congo’s provinces are far from one another and mostly battling conflict. Ituri, for instance, is around 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) from the nation’s capital, Kinshasa, and is ravaged by violence from Islamic State-backed militants.
Only 13 blood samples have been tested at the National Institute of Biomedical Research; 8 tested positive for the Bundibugyo strain. The remaining five could not be analyzed due to insufficient sample volume, the health minister said.
In Bunia, Ituri's main city, businesses and regular activities in public places appeared normal on Friday.
Resident Adeline Awekonimungu said she hopes the outbreak is quickly contained. "My recommendation is that the government take this matter seriously and that it takes charge of the hospitals so that this matter can be brought under control,” she said.
Associated Press writers Chinedu Asadu in Abuja, Nigeria; Jean-Yves Kamale in Kinshasa, Congo; Patrick Onen in Kampala, Uganda; and Evelyne Musambi in Nairobi, Kenya contributed.
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A woman sanitises her hands in front of Kibuli Muslim Hospital in Kampala, Uganda, Saturday, May 16, 2026. (AP Photo/ Hajarah Nalwadda)
A health worker wearing protective gear walks outside the a hospital in Bunia, Congo, Saturday, May 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Jorkim Jotham Pituwa)
Ambulances are parked outside a hospital in Bunia, Congo, Saturday, May 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Constant Same Bagalwa)
People wait to have their temperature taken in front of Kibuli Muslim Hospital in Kampala, Uganda, Saturday, May 16, 2026. (AP Photo/ Hajarah Nalwadda)
A health official uses a thermometer to screen people in front of Kibuli Muslim Hospital in Kampala, Uganda, Saturday, May 16, 2026. (AP Photo/ Hajarah Nalwadda)
FILE - This undated colorized transmission electron micrograph file image made available by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows an Ebola virus virion. (Frederick Murphy/CDC via AP, File)
FILE - A health worker sprays disinfectant on his colleague after working at an Ebola treatment center in Beni, eastern Congo, Sept 9, 2018. (AP Photo/Al-hadji Kudra Maliro, File)
People meet at the Ituri Provincial Health Directorate for the first Ebola response meeting in Bunia, Congo, Friday, May 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Jorkim Jotham Pituwa)
A general view of Bunia, where Ebola outbreaks have been confirmed in Ituri province, Congo, Friday, May 15, 2026. (AP Photo)
MADRID (AP) — Pope Leo XIV urged Spaniards on Saturday to stop “fanning the flames of polarization” as he arrived in Spain at a moment of political turmoil for the Socialist-led government and a credibility crisis for the Catholic Church.
The American pontiff traveled to Spain dozens of times as a priest, but this is the first visit here by a pope in 15 years. And Spaniards turned out in droves to welcome Leo, with an estimated 500,000 people — many of them young — cheering “This is the youth of the pope” at a raucous evening prayer vigil in Plaza de Lima in Madrid, where Leo was treated to a rock star's welcome.
Leo's visit signals a return of papal attention to Europe’s Christian roots after Pope Francis largely stayed away from the traditional centers of Christianity in favor of smaller Catholic communities farther away.
Leo is seemingly keen to bring his message of peace, unity and human dignity to a continent sorely polarized over migration, the Russia-Ukraine war and anxiety over artificial intelligence.
The pope, known as León XIV in Spanish, opened his weeklong trip in Madrid, greeted at the airport by the country’s Catholic monarchs, King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia, and Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. He told reporters, while traveling, that he was particularly heartened by reports of a spiritual awakening among young people in the once staunchly Catholic but now secularized country.
During his welcome address, Leo appealed to Spaniards, especially political leaders, to put polemics aside and invest in educating young people to appreciate diversity and complexity rather than shunning them.
“Today, the temptation to gain popularity by fanning the flames of polarization seems to have grown rather than diminished, and human dignity continues to be violated,” Leo said.
He appealed to Spain’s place at the heart of Christian Europe to serve as a model for the rest of the continent, while also recalling the country's 800-year Moorish past, when cities like Toledo and Córdoba became, he said, “centers of dialogue between languages, religions and knowledge.”
“For the love of truth, I invite everyone to set aside the divisive and polarizing narratives of your societal reality and history,” he said. Doing so will help Europe “overcome sterile simplifications through the fruitful appreciation of complexity.”
Spaniards find themselves increasingly divided over issues including immigration, feminism and political corruption, while historically Spain was riven by territorial and independence movements.
The highlight of Leo’s visit to Madrid will be his speech on Monday to a joint parliamentary session of the Congress of Deputies and the Senate — the first by a pope. Such speeches are rare and often become one of the most important of a pontificate.
But Leo will find a highly polarized legislature, with the government Socialist party hammered by a series of corruption scandals. Conservative parties, including the Popular Party and Vox, have called for Sánchez to step down before a general election due by next year, and have roundly criticized his government’s migration policies.
Spain’s Socialist-led government has bucked a general trend in Europe and the United States by announcing it will grant legal status to potentially hundreds of thousands of immigrants living and working in the country without authorization. Sánchez has highlighted the benefits of legal migration to the Spanish economy with an aging workforce and low birth rate.
Despite some expected protests of Leo’s visit, his speech to parliament in particular is something of a milestone for Spain’s Catholic Church. Shaped by the anticlerical violence of the country’s 1936-1939 civil war, the church has dealt more recently with a credibility crisis over revelations of decades of clergy abuse and cover-up.
And yet there are signs of renewed interest in all forms of spirituality, Christian and otherwise, especially among young Spaniards, said sociologist Narciso Michavila Núñez, president of the GAD3 consulting firm that polls young people about their faith, among other things.
In recent surveys, he said, pollsters are registering newfound interest in faith among Gen Z Spaniards. Michavila and others cite the popularity of Spanish pop star Rosalía’s new hit album “Lux,” which is overtly spiritual.
“The truth from a common view is not that God is in fashion. What is new in this moment, in this visit of the pope, is that God in the Spanish society is not a taboo anymore,” he said.
Leo pointed to the signs of a spiritual awakening in comments to reporters en route to Madrid. But he also acknowledged that he's facing stiff competition from Bad Bunny, who is holding two concerts this weekend.
“If they are confronted with the question ‘Do you want to go see Bad Bunny or do you want to go to see the pope?’ I think many will see Bad Bunny,” Leo said. “But I think there will also be a few here to see the pope. And that says something, you know.”
In a sign that the clergy sexual abuse crisis continues to overshadow papal trips, Leo confirmed he would meet with survivors during his visit. The Spanish Catholic hierarchy is belatedly reckoning with decades of abuse and cover-up.
“Abuses are still an open wound,” he told reporters.
Spain's king also cited the church’s sexual abuse crisis in the country in his welcome speech, but he insisted such cases “neither are nor can be representative of the immense ecclesial community.”
“Your clarity and firmness, which I also wish to acknowledge, are essential in the process of healing and repairing the harm inflicted: they are essential for the victims, for the faithful, for the church, and for society,” Felipe told Leo, in an apparent reference to a recently launched church-state reparations system for some victims of clerical abuse.
Leo’s trip is the first papal visit to Spain since Pope Benedict XVI came in 2011 for World Youth Day.
After Madrid, the other highlights of the trip include Leo’s visit midweek to Barcelona, where he will celebrate Mass in the Sagrada Familia basilica on the centenary of the death of its famed architect, Antoni Gaudí.
Leo will also fulfill a wish of Francis by ending his visit with a two-day stop in the Canary Islands, the Spanish archipelago closer to Africa than the Iberian Peninsula and a key destination for migrants leaving West Africa.
Leo will meet with migrants and the humanitarian organizations providing care for them. He is expected to toss a wreath of flowers into the sea, in memory of migrants killed during the treacherous Atlantic crossing. He’ll do so from the port in Las Palmas that in 2020 earned the nickname the “Dock of Shame” because thousands of migrants were forced to sleep in the open for weeks on end during a spike in arrivals.
Francis had made reaching out to migrants and refugees a hallmark of his papacy, and Leo has followed suit by demanding dignified treatment of migrants, especially in his native U.S.
“For those of us who are immigrants and find ourselves in this situation of having family far away, someone like the pope — who is an important figure for the entire world — coming here is truly something that makes me say ‘wow,’” said Constantina Nchama, an immigrant from Equatorial Guinea.
“It’s something that happens once in a lifetime,” she said. “I’m very, very excited about that, truly.”
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
Pope Leo XIV talks to Niurka, a mother of two, during his visit to the CEDIA 24 Horas Social Project center in Madrid, Saturday, June 6, 2026, on the first day of a seven-day apostolic journey to continental Spain and Canary Islands. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
A group of nuns wait for the arrival of Pope Leo XIV during a prayer vigil with young people at Plaza de Lima in Madrid, Spain, Saturday, June 6, 2026, on the first day of his seven-day apostolic visit to mainland Spain and the Canary Islands. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
People wait for the arrival of Pope Leo XIV during a prayer vigil with young people at Plaza de Lima in Madrid, Spain, Saturday, June 6, 2026, on the first day of his seven-day apostolic visit to mainland Spain and the Canary Islands. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
Pope Leo XIV is welcomed by Spain's King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia, as he arrives at the Royal Palace in Madrid, Saturday, June 6, 2026, on the first day of his seven-day apostolic journey to mainland Spain and the Canary Islands. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Pope Leo XIV is welcomed by Spain's King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia, as he arrives at the Royal Palace in Madrid, Saturday, June 6, 2026, on the first day of his seven-day apostolic journey to mainland Spain and the Canary Islands. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Pope Leo XIV arrives at Madrid's Adolfo Suarez International Airport, Saturday, June 6, 2026, as he starts a seven-day apostolic journey to mainland Spain and the Canary Islands. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Pope Leo XIV is welcomed by Spain's King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia upon his arrival at Adolfo Suarez Madrid-Barajas International Airport in Madrid, Saturday, June 6, 2026, marking the start of his seven-day apostolic journey to mainland Spain and the Canary Islands. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Pilgrims walk through Madrid ahead of Pope Leo XIV's visit to Spain, Saturday, June 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
Pope Leo XIV talks to journalists aboard the papal flight from Rome to Madrid, Saturday, June 6, 2026, on the occasion of his apostolic journey to Spain. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino, Pool)
Visitors pose for photos beside a sign bearing the name of Pope Leo XIV in Madrid, Spain, Saturday, June 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
Visitors pose for photos next to a sign bearing the name of Pope Leo XIV in Madrid, Spain, Saturday, June 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
Pope Leo XIV arrives at Adolfo Suarez-Madrid Barajas Airport in Madrid, Spain, Saturday, June 6, 2026, at the start of a seven-day pastoral visit to mainland Spain and the Canary Islands. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Pope Leo XIV waves as he leaves after his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at The Vatican, Wednesday, June 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Leo XIV waves as he leaves after his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at The Vatican, Wednesday, June 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
FILE - Migrants disembark at the port of "La Estaca" in Valverde on the Canary island of El Hierro, Spain, Aug. 26, 2024. Emergency services said the migrants arrived by boat after a 13-day voyage from Senegal. (AP Photo/Maria Ximena, File)
Antoni Gaudí's Basilica of the Sagrada Familia stands at dusk in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, May 30, 2026, ahead of Pope Leo XIV's visit to Barcelona in June. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Pope Leo XIV waves as he leaves after his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at The Vatican, Wednesday, June 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
