RWAMPARA, Congo (AP) — Dozens of people working at an Ebola virus treatment center in northeast Congo went on strike Monday over unpaid salaries and bonuses.
Congo has been battling since May a new wave of the virus, named by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention last week as the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak ever recorded on the continent.
The striking staff at Rwampara General Hospital in Ituri province includes epidemiologists, case investigators, drivers and gravediggers who say they have not been paid by the Congolese authorities. The hospital was shuttered by protesting staff, who blocked the road leading to the medical facility.
Some of the center's health workers and those working on the ground began striking last week, accusing authorities of failing to pay their wages since the outbreak began.
“We don’t know how it is possible to not have been paid for two months,” Bahati Claude, a health worker at the center, which is the largest in the Rwampara health zone, told The Associated Press. “We don’t want to give up the job.”
The Congolese authorities declared a new Ebola outbreak on May 15, after the disease had been transmitting for weeks without official detection, according to the World Health Organization. The latest outbreak is caused by the rare Bundibugyo virus, which has no approved vaccine or treatment.
During a visit to Ituri last week, the Congolese health minister, Roger Kamba, said the government is verifying a list of those working to control the outbreak, as some unrelated names have been added to the payroll.
“We must ensure that these payments reach the right people,” Kamba said. “We have faced a few challenges, notably changes to the lists, which have led to complaints from people saying they are not being paid even though they are working. We have the means to sort this out.”
There are 1,926 confirmed cases so far in the country, including 702 deaths, according to Congolese authorities.
Meanwhile, the WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus posted Monday on X that a second U.S. citizen, a humanitarian worker in eastern Congo who had contracted Ebola, was transferred to Germany. The first American to test positive for the virus was a doctor working in Congo during the early weeks of the outbreak.
Workers at an Ebola treatment center go on strike over unpaid salaries and bonuses at Rwampara General Hospital, in Ituri, northeastern Congo, Monday, July 13, 2026, (AP Photo/Prosper Heri Ngorora)
Workers at an Ebola treatment center go on strike over unpaid salaries and bonuses at Rwampara General Hospital, in Ituri, northeastern Congo, Monday, July 13, 2026, (AP Photo/Prosper Heri Ngorora)
FILE - A health worker prepares a patient's blood sample for testing at Bunia General Hospital in Bunia, Congo, Thursday, June 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa, File)
AVON, France (AP) — A fire raging in the historic and much-visited Fontainebleau forest south of Paris on Monday prompted evacuations of some residential neighborhoods and disrupted train and highway traffic.
It was among several wildfires in western Europe as the region bakes under its third red-alert heat wave this year.
In Spain, 10 people were still unaccounted for Monday from a fire that ripped through a remote southern expat community last week, killing 13 people in one of the country's deadliest blazes.
The Fontainebleau forest fire is unusual for its proximity to the French capital — about 70 kilometers (42 miles). The region hosts the Fontainebleau Chateau favored by Napoleon and is popular with visitors from Paris and beyond.
Two water-dumping planes were deployed over the area along with hundreds of firefighters, regional fire service spokesperson Paul Laurain told public broadcaster France-Info.
Trains to and from the bustling Gare de Lyon train station were disrupted late Sunday but were returning to normal Monday morning. A section of the busy A6 highway leading southeast of Paris was shut down because of fire risk.
Large fires in southern France have already scorched thousands of hectares (acres) since last week, disrupting the Tour de France cycling race and stretching firefighting resources.
France is experiencing the peak of its third heat wave of the summer, with temperatures surpassing 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit ) across western and central areas and around 37 C (98 F) in Paris.
A 93-year-old British national died Sunday in a hospital from injuries sustained in the Los Gallardos wildfire, elevating the death toll to 13.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez was expected to visit the site of the fire on Monday. Regional authorities said the blaze was contained Sunday after affecting some 70 square kilometers (27 square miles) of forest and farmland — larger than the size of Manhattan.
Spain is experiencing extreme heat, which combined with wind and little rainfall is creating the ideal conditions for small wildfires to grow unchecked.
Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent, with temperatures increasing twice as fast as the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.
In the U.K., people were evacuated from several dozen rural homes in north Wales after a wildfire broke out across a mountainside on Sunday, British media reported.
Wildfires also burned in several other locations across England as another heat wave — the third this year — brought hot, sunny and dry conditions.
The Met Office said record heat waves since May have led to 2026 becoming the first year to record temperatures of 35 C (95 F) or higher on six separate days. That broke the previous record set in 1976 and 2020, when five days were recorded with such temperatures.
Natural England’s fire severity index has put much of England at “very high” risk of wildfires, with some areas in southern England and the Midlands at “exceptional” risk.
A previous version corrected the age of a British national who died Sunday.
A fire command vehicle makes its way through a wildfire in the Fontainebleau forest region, south of Paris, France, Monday, July 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)
Fire trucks are parked near the scene of a wildfire in the region of the historic Fontainebleau forest, about 60 km (37 miles) south of Paris, France, Monday, July 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)
A view of a burnt area affected by wildfires in Bedar, near Almeria, Spain, Saturday, July 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Gregorio Marrero)
Smoke billows rise into the sky during wildfires at the historic Fontainebleau forest, about 60 km (37 miles) south of Paris, France, Monday, July 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)
