FRANCE PERSPECTIVE

Paris, May 17, 2026. The World Health Organization triggered on Sunday a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) amid the Ebola epidemic striking Ituri Province in the northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The decision by Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus specifies that the virus constitutes a PHEIC but does not meet the criteria for a pandemic emergency—the higher tier introduced by amendments to the International Health Regulations adopted in June 2024.

The severity of the situation stems largely from the pathogen itself. The Bundibugyo variant of Ebola is circulating in Ituri, against which no vaccine or treatment exists. This characteristic starkly distinguishes the current outbreak from previous Zaire-strain flare-ups, for which medical tools have been developed. The WHO estimates the virus's average case fatality rate at 50 percent, with earlier outbreaks recording rates between 25 and 90 percent.

As of May 16, the WHO had confirmed eight laboratory-verified cases and counted 246 suspected cases and 80 suspected deaths in Ituri Province. The Africa CDC, the African Union's health agency, reported 336 suspected cases and 88 deaths likely linked to the virus. The gap between confirmed and suspected cases reflects ground reality: the outbreak epicenter sits in an extremely difficult-to-access zone. The Nizi Bridge, the main crossing on the Iga Barrier-Mongwalu axis, collapsed in November 2025 and has not been rebuilt, rendering medical team and laboratory material transport nearly impossible. "There is no place to isolate the sick. They die at home and their bodies are handled by family members," testified Isaac Nyakulinda, a civil society representative in Rwampara, reached by AFP.

The crisis has now breached national borders. A 59-year-old Congolese man who departed Ituri Province was hospitalized in Kampala on May 11 and died three days later—the first Ebola death in Uganda in this outbreak. His remains were subsequently repatriated to the DRC, raising concerns about transmission chains linked to funeral rites. A first case has also been confirmed in Goma, a major city in the country's east: the wife of a man who died of the virus in Bunia, who traveled to Goma after her husband's death, according to Professor Jean-Jacques Muyembe, director of Congo's National Institute of Biomedical Research. South Sudan is on alert, Kenya is strengthening preparations, and the United States now advises against all travel to Ituri for its citizens.

The Ituri region is a gold-mining area, traversed by intense population movements linked to mining activity, amid chronic security instability.