Ebola Deaths in Congo Top 5,000 as Fears of Continent-Wide...

Healthcare workers attend the burial of Joseline Ngonji Kale, a 55-year-old woman who died from Ebola, in Bunia, Congo, Friday, Oct. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Dieudonne Dirole)

BUNIA – Congo’s Ebola death toll has surpassed 5,000, according to government figures released Saturday, as the country confronts the continuing spread of the virus and infections emerge in other African nations. Data from the Congolese Ministry of Health shows that 5,026 people have died among 10,351 confirmed infections, producing a fatality rate of nearly 50%. The figures are raising fresh concerns among health experts about whether authorities can bring the outbreak under control.

The outbreak, driven by the Bundibugyo virus, was declared in mid-May and took authorities by surprise. Since then, officials have faced mounting difficulty in containing and managing the disease.

It has now become the second-deadliest Ebola outbreak on record, surpassed only by the West African epidemic that lasted two years from 2014 to 2016 and claimed about 11,000 lives across several countries.