BUNIA, Congo (AP) — A 16-month-old baby and his mother have recovered from Ebola in eastern Congo, a rare positive development as Africa's top health body warned the outbreak of the deadly virus could become the worst on record if it continues to spread.
The two left the Rwampara Treatment Center on Tuesday, near Bunia, in Ituri province, the epicenter of the outbreak, along with five other people who also recovered from Ebola.
“The joy is immense given the state he was in at first,” Kahindo Mireille Pierrette said of her infant. “If you had seen him before, you wouldn’t believe he could have this strength now,” she added.
Pierrette said she brought her child to the treatment center at the end of May, after he started bleeding from the mouth and nose and could barely move.
Modet Camara, a doctor at the center, said the baby was treated with antibiotics after a PCR test came back positive for Ebola on his second day at the hospital.
Congo's Ministry of Health said Tuesday that 837 cases of the virus have been confirmed so far, including 196 confirmed deaths. However, the number of cases is believed to be higher because the outbreak was confirmed on May 15, weeks after it is suspected to have begun.
Since the outbreak was declared in mid-May, 49 have recovered, the ministry said.
The outbreak is caused by the rare Bundibugyo virus, which has no approved treatment or vaccine. The more common Zaire virus, which now has a vaccine, was responsible for most of Congo’s past 16 outbreaks of the disease.
More than 90% of the cases in the current outbreak are concentrated in Congo’s eastern province of Ituri. Cases have also been recorded in the North Kivu and South Kivu provinces and have spread across the border to Uganda.
The head of Africa’s Centres for Disease Control and Prevention warned Tuesday that the outbreak could become the worst on record, noting that tens of thousands of contacts of infected patients have yet to be traced.
“If we don’t stop the outbreak very soon it will be worse than what we had in West Africa and eastern DRC,” Africa CDC Director-General Jean Kaseya said during a virtual meeting of African heads of state.
An outbreak a decade ago across several countries in West Africa was the worst on record, with more than 28,000 cases and more than 11,000 deaths.
Nearly a million people have been displaced by years of conflict in Ituri, according to the U.N. humanitarian office, making contact tracing difficult as people flee attacks or move frequently in the vast province with dense forests, poor roads and remote villages that can take days to reach.
Tracing is also difficult among the thousands of miners who regularly move among remote sites in the mineral-rich region.
Kahindo Mireille Pierrette, an Ebola survivor, center, poses with her 16-month old baby and health workers after they were declared to have survived Ebola and discharged from the Rwampara treatment Center in Ituri Congo, Tuesday, June 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)
Kahindo Mireille Pierrette, an Ebola survivor, poses with her 16-month old baby, after they were declared to have survived Ebola and discharged from the Rwampara treatment Center in Ituri Congo, Tuesday, June 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)
Kahindo Mireille Pierrette, an Ebola survivor poses with her 16-month old baby, after they were declared to have survived Ebola and discharged from the Rwampara treament Center in Ituri Congo, Tuesday, June 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)
A business jet with six people on board crashed on a highway in Laredo, Texas, and caught fire Tuesday night, authorities said, killing one person and causing chaos as people left their vehicles to frantically try to smash the cockpit window and free those inside.
Drivers who came upon the burning plane, which was nearly sheared in half and tipped on its side, captured dramatic rescue scenes on video or rushed toward the aircraft on foot to help. Two people came running with a sledgehammer and shovel, which they used to strike the cockpit glass and try propping open the plane's door.
The plane crashed on the Loop 20 highway near the Texas-Mexico border shortly after 10 p.m., said Jose Baeza, an investigator with the Laredo Police Department. He said one person on the plane died in the crash. A person in a car struck by the plane was taken to a hospital in stable condition.
Dashcam footage posted on social media showed the aircraft careening down the highway, taking out a light post before coming to a stop. It came to a rest not far from the Laredo International Airport.
“It looked like part of a movie. I was in shock,” said Zayra Garza, an esthetician who was driving her co-workers home when she came upon the crash.
No injuries on the ground were immediately reported, though five officers were taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation.
The plane, a Cessna Citation Latitude twin jet, departed Tuesday evening from San José del Cabo in Mexico and was bound for Austin, Texas, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement.
It's not clear what caused the crash as it reached Laredo, about 140 miles (225 kilometers) southwest of San Antonio. Laredo International Airport Director Gilberto Sanchez told KGNS TV in Laredo that the plane experienced a mechanical failure. He provided no details.
Video posted to social media showed the plane on its side, smashed into a highway barrier. The tail was ripped from the fuselage and laying mostly intact on a lower-level road beneath where the rescue was taking place.
Garza began shooting video as she approached the scene and then stopped her vehicle across from the crippled jet, which was on fire.
She saw someone inside the plane trying to break the cockpit window to escape. Soon, people got out of their vehicles to try to smash the window from the outside as the fire on the fuselage continues to burn.
Garza’s husband jumped out of their vehicle to help and Garza then saw the door of the plane open. She said three people who looked to be teenagers rushed out, followed by someone who appeared to be a pilot. Another member of the crew tried to pull out a person who seemed to be unconscious.
As smoke billowed from the plane, a firefighter used a small ladder to climb into the aircraft to rescue the remaining passenger, while others shot water out of a hose at the wreckage. Rescuers can be heard calling for a rope as others use rods to hold up the plane door.
Several times, officers helping prop open the door dart away from the plane and double over in coughing fits because of the intense smoke.
“What was worrying me was the fire,” she said. “I was concerned that it could have just exploded at any time.”
This was the third significant aviation accident in as many days. A B-52 crashed Monday during a test flight at Edwards Air Force Base in California and killed all eight people aboard, while on Sunday, 12 people were killed when a plane on a skydiving outing in Missouri crashed.
NetJets said in a statement that the crash involved one of its aircraft and it is working with authorities. NetJets is owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway and allows people to buy part ownership in private jets.
People attempt to pull passengers out of a plane after it crashed on a highway Tuesday, June 16, 2026, in Laredo, Texas. (Zayra Garza via AP)
People attempt to pull passengers out of a plane after it crashed on a highway Tuesday, June 16, 2026, in Laredo, Texas. (Zayra Garza via AP)
A passenger, top, jumps out of a plane after it crashed on a highway as other people help Tuesday, June 16, 2026, in Laredo, Texas. (Zayra Garza via AP)
