DR Congo Ebola cases rise to 808, death toll at 192

The number of confirmed Ebola cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has risen to 808, including 192 deaths, according to the country's health ministry on Monday.

Twenty-six new confirmed cases and 11 deaths were reported on Sunday, bringing the case fatality rate to 23.8 percent, according to the Situation Report No. 31 on the Ebola virus disease outbreak. A total of 363 patients were in isolation as of Sunday, while 48 patients had recovered since the start of the outbreak.

The response is continuing in the three affected provinces, namely Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu. The outbreak, caused by the Bundibugyo Ebola virus, was officially declared on May 15.

Trilateral talks between Russia, the United States and Ukraine ended on Wednesday in Abu Dhabi, with Russia and Ukraine reaching an agreement on a "large-scale" prisoner exchange.

Vladimir Medinsky, head of the Russian delegation at the talks, told a press conference that details of the exchange would be announced soon and that negotiations would continue.

He said the delegations had discussed humanitarian issues, with the future of European security being a central focus of the U.S.-mediated talks.

Medinsky added that parties had reached understandings on some issues, without providing further details.

He defended the need to discuss post-war security arrangements at the current stage of negotiations, saying the conflict in Ukraine had exposed shortcomings in Europe's security system.

Medinsky called for the establishment of a fair security framework that takes into account the interests of all countries.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin had been continuously briefed by the Russian delegation on developments in the trilateral talks.

He said that the Russian delegation did not have any contacts with European representatives in Abu Dhabi, and such contacts had not been planned in the first place.

Meanwhile, Jared Kushner, a member of the U.S. negotiating team, told reporters that a lot of serious issues had been discussed, adding the discussions were thorough and covered all major issues.

He noted that the prisoner exchange deal was one of the positive outcomes of the negotiations, with the exact number of prisoners to be finalized on Thursday.

Kushner said the second day of discussions were "very substantive," describing the negotiations as a good first step forward.

He also said he and U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff planned to travel to Moscow for further discussions on ending the Ukraine conflict.

Kushner noted that the two would seek progress in Moscow if Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to U.S. demands to end the war, and would meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky afterward.

Kushner added that Russia had its own security concerns and had been asked to put forward proposals to reduce tensions.

On the Ukrainian side, negotiator David Arakhamia, chairman of the Servant of the People parliamentary faction, a Ukrainian political party, said the Abu Dhabi talks had generated "good momentum" toward finding a solution to the conflict before the end of the year.

Rustem Umerov, head of Ukraine's Foreign Intelligence Service and a member of the Ukrainian negotiating delegation, said earlier Wednesday that the Ukrainian team planned to hold separate discussions with European partners following the trilateral session.

"The Russian-Ukrainian war has its implication on the European security structure to begin with. So having the European security structure as part of these trilateral talks is a logical process, because we cannot exclude the effects this war had on Europe's security, on Europe's economy, and it's right on the European border. And that's the whole issue. The main issue that began with is NATO being closer and Europe's security being closer to the Russian border," said Abdulaziz Al-Shehhi, a senior researcher at TRENDS Research and Advisory.

The latest round of Russia-U.S.-Ukraine trilateral talks took place in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday and Wednesday, marking the first meeting among the three countries since February. The first day's discussions lasted nearly four hours, while Wednesday's session concluded in less than two hours.

Although progress was reported on the prisoner exchange, no agreement was announced on a ceasefire, territorial disputes or long-term security guarantees.