TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — An imprisoned Belarusian journalist has fallen seriously ill, relatives say, and his family and media rights advocates urged authorities on Friday to quickly release him from custody to save his life.
Kiryl Pazniak, 49, has been in custody since his arrest in September on extremism charges, accusations widely used by authorities to stifle critical voices. Pazniak, who hosted a popular show on YouTube, faces a prison sentence of up to seven years if convicted.
Pazniak's 20-year-old daughter also has been arrested on extremism charges. Both have been named political prisoners by human rights defenders.
Pazniak's ex-wife Elena said that he was suffering from pneumonia and COVID-19, and was placed earlier this month in a prison hospital in grave condition. She argued that he hadn't been given proper medical treatment and his life was in jeopardy.
Belarusian authorities didn’t immediately comment on Pazniak’s condition or accusations that he wasn’t being provided with adequate medical care.
“Freedom of speech in Belarus has a specific price, and today 21 journalists behind bars, including Pazniak, are paying for it with their health and ruined lives,” said Andrei Bastunets, head of the Belarusian Association of Journalists. “Belarus has already become a black hole of Europe and leads the continent in the number of arrested journalists.”
Belarus' authoritarian president, Alexander Lukashenko, has governed the nation of 9.5 million with an iron fist for more than three decades, and the country has been sanctioned repeatedly by Western nations — both for its crackdown on human rights and for allowing Moscow to use its territory in the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which began on Feb. 24, 2022.
Lukashenko's government was challenged after a 2020 presidential election, when hundreds of thousands took to the streets to protest a vote they viewed as rigged. In an ensuing crackdown, tens of thousands were detained, with many beaten by police. Prominent opposition figures fled the country or were imprisoned.
Since U.S. President Donald Trump returned to the White House in January 2025, Lukashenko has released hundreds of political prisoners as part of American-brokered deals that lifted some U.S. sanctions, part of the isolated leader’s efforts to improve ties with the West.
Human rights groups say, however, that Belarusian authorities have continued their crackdown on dissent. Belarus still has 841 political prisoners, according to the Viasna human rights center.
In this photo, released by Belarusian Presidential Press Service, Belarus' President Alexander Lukashenko, center, speaks to officers as he attends joint nuclear drills held by Russian and Belarusian armed forces in Asipovichy district of Belarus, Thursday, May 21, 2026. (Belarusian Presidential Press Service via AP)
BUNIA, Congo (AP) — The World Health Organization chief said Friday that the Ebola outbreak in Congo is spreading rapidly and now poses a “very high” risk there, as a lack of medical resources and anger among the population hamper the response in a vulnerable and conflict-ridden region.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the risk of global spread remains low, but that the U.N. health agency was revising upward its assessment of the risk within Congo from its previous categorization of “high.”
The WHO chief noted that 82 cases have been confirmed in Congo, with seven confirmed deaths, though he said the outbreak is believed to be “much larger.” He said there are now almost 750 suspected cases and 177 suspected deaths.
Supplies were being rushed to Ituri province in the northeastern corner of the country, where the illness has been spreading for weeks in areas were many people have been displaced by armed conflict.
Frontline medical staff have struggled with a lack of resources and, in some cases, pushback due to what has been characterized as misinformation or situations where medical policy has clashed with local customs such as burial rites.
On Thursday, an Ebola treatment center in Rwampara was set on fire by youths who were angered when they were blocked from retrieving the body of a friend who apparently had died of Ebola, according to witnesses and police.
Bodies of Ebola victims can be highly contagious, and medical authorities are trying to control burials whenever possible.
Julienne Lusenge, president of Women’s Solidarity for Inclusive Peace and Development, a local aid group, said the population’s anger is mostly due to misinformation.
“We have lived through years and years of conflict and hardship so rumors spread easily,” she said.
She said some churches have told their large congregations that the outbreak is fake and that divine protection makes medical care unnecessary.
The United Nations said Friday it released $60 million from its Central Emergency Response Fund to accelerate the response in Congo and in the region.
The U.S. has pledged $23 million in funding to bolster the response in Congo and Uganda, and said it would also fund the establishment of up to 50 Ebola treatment clinics in the affected regions.
But Ugandan authorities said Thursday on X they were not aware of any treatment center being set up by the U.S.
Lusenge said her group’s small hospital near the Ituri provincial capital of Bunia lacks basic protective equipment as health workers struggle to respond to the outbreak.
Patients showing symptoms are first examined at the hospital before being referred to a larger treatment center, exposing nurses and doctors to possible infection, she said.
“We have made requests to different partners, but we have not yet really received anything,” Lusenge said. “We only have hand sanitizer and a few masks for the nurses, but we need much more than that.”
Both the WHO and Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention believe the outbreak is larger than the cases detected so far.
“I expect the number of cases to increase as surveillance becomes more and more rigorous," Africa CDP Director-General Jean Kaseya said.
The region's already-weak health infrastructure and surveillance capacity has been further weakened by international aid cuts, experts say.
Armed conflict in the region further complicates efforts to handle the crisis. There are over 920,000 internally displaced people in Ituri Province, according to the U.N.
Local leaders said an attack by militants linked to the Islamic State group killed at least 17 people on Tuesday in Alima, a village in Ituri.
“The outbreak can still be contained but the window for action is narrow,” Gabriela Arenas from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said on Friday. “What happens in the coming days in homes, in communities and across borders will matter enormously.”
——
Pronczuk reported from Dakar, Senegal. Keaten reported from Geneva. Associated Press writers Jean Yves Kamale in Kinshasa, Congo; Mark Banchereau and Wilson McMakin in Dakar, Senegal contributed to this report.
——
For more on Africa and development: https://apnews.com/hub/africa-pulse
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.
Charred hospital beds stand in smoldering Ebola treatment center in Rwampara, Congo, Thursday, May 21, 2026, after it was set fire by people angry at being stopped from retrieving a body, according to a witness and police. (AP Photo/Dirole Lotsima Dieudonne)
Flames and smoke rise from an Ebola treatment center in Rwampara, Congo, Thursday, May 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Dirole Lotsima Dieudonne)
Medical staff carry an Ebola patient to a treatment center in Rwampara, Congo, Thursday, May 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)
A person is wearing a protective face mask in front of the WHO logo, during the media regarding the epidemic of Ebola disease, during a press conference at the World Health Organization (WHO) headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, Friday, May 22, 2026. (Martial Trezzini/Keystone via AP)
