Ebola fears surge on the ground in Congo over rapid spread of a rare type

BUNIA, Congo (AP) — Anxious healthcare workers in eastern Congo said Wednesday they are underprotected and undertrained in a rapidly spreading Ebola outbreak of a rare type of the virus in one of the world’s most remote and vulnerable places.

Long the scene of attacks by an array of armed groups, the region's volatility now further complicates efforts to handle the crisis. Local leaders said an attack by militants linked to the Islamic State group killed at least 17 people on Tuesday night in Alima village in Ituri, a province that has become the hot spot of the outbreak.

The World Health Organization, which noted a low risk globally, has said “patient zero” has not been found.

“It’s truly sad and painful because we’ve already been through a security crisis, and now Ebola is here too,” said Justin Ndasi, a Bunia resident,

Tons of health supplies have been airlifted to Bunia, where the first known death was announced last week, but residents said masks are harder to find and some disinfectants that previously sold for 2,500 Congolese francs (about $1) now cost four times more.

At a treatment center in Rwampara, families cried and watched as healthcare workers in protective gear silently disinfected the bodies of their loved ones — suspected Ebola victims — and placed them into coffins for secure burial sites.

The disease struck suddenly, they said, describing a rapid deterioration after symptoms were mistaken for illnesses such as malaria.

“He told me his heart was hurting,” said Botwine Swanze, who lost her son. “Then he started crying because of the pain. ... Then he started bleeding and vomiting a lot.”

The Ebola virus is highly contagious and spreads in the human population through contact with bodily fluids such as vomit, blood or semen. Symptoms include fever, vomiting, diarrhea, muscle pain and at times internal and external bleeding.

WHO has declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern, worried over its “scale and speed.” The WHO chief in Congo says it could last at least two months.

The rare type of Ebola, known as the Bundibugyo virus, spread undetected for weeks following the first known death while authorities tested for another, more common Ebola virus and came up negative.

Investigations continued into where and when the outbreak started, but “given the scale, we are thinking that it has started probably a couple of months ago,” said Anaïs Legand, with WHO's emergencies program.

So far, 51 cases have been confirmed in Congo’s northern provinces of Ituri and North Kivu, and two cases in Uganda, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Wednesday. There are 139 suspected deaths and almost 600 suspected cases.

But “the scale of the epidemic is much larger,” he said.

The London-based MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis estimated that cases have been substantially undercounted and that the actual number could already exceed 1,000. “The true magnitude remains uncertain,” it said.

This is Congo’s 17th Ebola outbreak, and the WHO has said the country's health ministry has experienced staff and capacity to respond. Most outbreaks, however, were of the more common Ebola type.

Dr. Vasee Moorthy, a special adviser at WHO, said a vaccine to address Bundibugyo would not be available for at least six to nine months.

Eastern Congo already faced “immense pressure from conflict, displacement and a collapsing health system,” said Dr. Lievin Bangali, senior health coordinator for the International Rescue Committee in Congo, adding that years of underfunding have weakened the response.

The outbreak highlights the effects of the Trump administration’s deep cuts in foreign aid. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said the administration set a priority on funding 50 emergency clinics in affected areas. The U.S. pledged to contribute $23 million.

In Bunia, schools and churches remain open while some residents wear masks. Elsewhere in Ituri province, suspected Ebola patients share a ward with others injured or ill at Bambu General Hospital.

A Doctors Without Borders team identified suspected cases over the weekend at Bunia's Salama hospital but found no available isolation ward in the area, said Trish Newport, an emergency program manager.

“Every health facility they called said, ‘We’re full of suspect cases. We don’t have any space.’ This gives you a vision of how crazy it is right now,” she said on social media.

In Mongbwalu, where the body of the first known death was taken, the nearby border with Uganda remains open and gold mining continues, said Chérubin Kuku Ndilawa, a civil society leader.

“There’s no panic. People continue with their normal lives, but they’re also starting to spread the word,” said Ndilawa, and noted a lack of public handwashing stations.

There were around 30 Ebola patients at Mongbwalu General Hospital, where a student from the local medical technology institute died on Wednesday, Dr. Didier Pay said.

“The patients are scattered here and there,” said Dr. Richard Lokudu, the hospital’s medical director. “We hope for the proper triage and isolation facilities to be installed today, and if that doesn’t happen, we will be completely overwhelmed.”

They are understaffed and not trained to handle suspected cases, Lokudu said, and added that if confirmed cases surge, “we have no protection.”

In the Ebola-affected city of Goma, where Rwanda-backed M23 rebels are in control, the “situation is complicated,” said Dr. Anne Ancia, WHO's representative in Congo.

A U.S. national who tested positive in Congo arrived in Berlin on Wednesday and was in a special isolation ward where a “comprehensive examination” was underway, German Health Ministry spokesperson Martin Elsässer said.

Elsässer declined to comment on the condition of the patient, who has not been identified by German or U.S. authorities. The ministry later said, without elaborating, that it would take in the patient's wife and three children at the request of U.S. authorities.

A top health official in the Czech Republic said they are receiving an American doctor who was treating Ebola patients in Uganda and who is without symptoms. It was not clear whether any were infected.

Dr. Satish Pillai, incident manager for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Ebola response, told reporters Wednesday that the Americans were being transported in coordination with the U.S. State Department and other agencies. One patient, who is in stable condition, is now being treated in Germany, Pillai said.

Asked whether the White House played a role in the decision to move the Americans to Europe, Pillai said the decision was based on conditions on the ground and the need to mobilize rapidly.

Associated Press writers Jamey Keaten in Geneva; Jean Yves Kamale in Kinshasa, Congo; Wilson McMakin in Dakar, Senegal; Devi Shastri in Milwaukee; Karel Janicek in Prague and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.

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Family members of people who died of Ebola stand next to coffins at a health center in Rwampara, Congo, Wednesday, May 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)

Red Cross workers carry the body of a person who died of Ebola into a coffin at a health center in Rwampara, Congo, Wednesday, May 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)

Relatives look on as people who died of Ebola are taken from a health center in Rwampara, Congo, Wednesday, May 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)

A woman cries as Red Cross workers carry the coffin of a person who died of Ebola from a health center in Rwampara, Congo, Wednesday, May 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)

World Health Organization (WHO) emergency supplies headed for Congo to combat the Ebola outbreak in Ituri province, seen at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, Kenya, Wednesday, May 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Kasuku)

A health worker uses a thermometer to screen a man by the roadside in Bunia, Congo, Tuesday, May 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus speaks to the media following an emergency committee during a press conference at its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, Wednesday, May 20, 2026. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP)

Aid workers set up an Ebola treatment center in Rwampara, Congo, Tuesday, May 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Dirole Lotsima Dieudonne) Corrects from Bunia to Rwampara

A man sprays a tent at an Ebola treatment center in Bunia, Congo, Tuesday, May 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Dirole Lotsima Dieudonne)

People offload a shipment of more than 15 tons of supplies donated by UNICEF as part of the response to the Ebola virus outbreak at Bunia National Airport in Bunia, Congo, Tuesday, May 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)

People offload a shipment of more than 15 tons of supplies donated by UNICEF as part of the response to the Ebola virus outbreak at Bunia National Airport in Bunia, Congo, Tuesday, May 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)

People offload a shipment of more than 15 tons of supplies donated by UNICEF as part of the response to the Ebola virus outbreak at Bunia National Airport in Bunia, Congo, Tuesday, May 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)

BEIRUT (AP) — Israel struck the southern Beirut suburbs on Sunday just days after a ceasefire agreement in Washington went into effect.

A statement from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said the strikes were in retaliation for the Hezbollah militant group firing toward northern Israel earlier, and that the attacks targeted “command centers” in the sprawling urban neighborhoods. Hezbollah did not immediately claim responsibility for firing at Israel.

The strikes come after the Lebanese and Israeli governments in Washington renewed a ceasefire agreement in ongoing talks that Beirut hopes will bring an end to the war across the country. There was no immediate word of casualties.

Israel had already struck the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital twice since the first agreement between Lebanon and Israel went into effect on April 17. Strikes over southern Lebanon continue daily, meanwhile, and Hezbollah fighters and Israeli troops have also clashed.

Israel announced on Monday that it would strike the southern suburbs after Hezbollah claimed attacks in northern Israel, but last-gasp talks via Washington halted the attacks, on the condition that Hezbollah stop targeting Israel border towns.

Iran had warned that an attack on the Lebanese capital would trigger renewed full-scale war across the Mideast, amid ongoing efforts by Pakistan to restart talks between Tehran and Washington.

The Iranian-backed Hezbollah has rejected the U.S.-brokered deal and instead endorsed Iran’s demand that ending the war in Lebanon be part of the negotiations with the U.S.

The fighting in Lebanon, where Israeli forces have seized large swaths of the south in its latest ground invasion, threatens efforts to end the Iran war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a key transit point for oil and gas. Its closure has jolted the world economy.

Iran has demanded that any lasting truce extend to Lebanon. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who faces elections later this year, wants to press ahead with Israel’s offensive until he considers Hezbollah no longer poses a threat.

Lebanon’s army commander, Gen. Rodolphe Haikal, headed to Pakistan Saturday at the invitation of Pakistan’s army chief. The Lebanese army gave no further details and did not say whether it is related to Pakistan’s mediation between Iran and the U.S.

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s interior minister was in Tehran on Sunday in a fresh bid to restart negotiations between Iran and the U.S., as the American military said it shot down two more Iranian drones over the Strait of Hormuz that threatened international maritime traffic.

The latest action came as the U.S. administration presses Iran to make a deal to end the war in the Middle East, which has strained the global economy and threatened a hunger crisis in some of the world’s most vulnerable countries.

The heaviest fighting ended with a preliminary ceasefire on April 8, but the sides have not been able to agree on a long-term end to the war.

Pakistani Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi is in Tehran to deliver a message to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei from Pakistan's army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir, according to Iranian state-run IRNA news agency.

Khamenei has not been seen in public since he was named the Islamic Republic’s ruler after his father was killed on the first day of the war on Feb. 28 when the U.S. and Israel lauched a bombardment campaign against Iran.

Naqvi met with Iranian Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni late Saturday, and held talks Sunday morning with Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, according to official Iranian media.

There were no details on the contents of the message. Pakistani authorities have said Islamabad, with support from regional countries including Qatar, Turkey and Egypt, has been working to help bridge differences between the United States and Iran and encourage efforts aimed at reducing tensions and ensuring the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

The U.S. military said Saturday that it had shot down several Iranian missiles and drones launched toward the Strait of Hormuz and Gulf Arab allies, and struck some of the Islamic Republic’s coastal surveillance radar sites in response.

“The attack drones posed an immediate threat to regional maritime traffic,” U.S. Central Command said.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said it had targeted the Ali Al Salem air base, which hosts U.S. forces in Kuwait, and the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet in Bahrain, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.

The U.S. military said there were no reports of harm to U.S. personnel.

Earlier in the month, Iranian drones heavily damaged a passenger terminal at Kuwait’s main airport, killing one person and wounding dozens.

The U.S. military has kept up its blockade on Iranian ports in response to Tehran’s grip on the strait, a crucial corridor for global oil and natural gas shipments.

Energy prices have spiked, posing political problems for U.S. President Donald Trump’s Republican Party ahead of midterm congressional elections in November.

Magdy reported from Cairo and Lidman from Tel Aviv, Israel.

A man walks past anti-U.S. graffiti painted on the wall of the British Embassy in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, June 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

People walk under a banner showing portraits of the late revolutionary founder Ayatollah Khomeini, left, and the slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in U.S. and Israeli strikes on Feb. 28, in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, June 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)