The head of the World Health Organization has called for an immediate ceasefire in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo to help tackle the Ebola outbreak there, as Uganda closed its border with its neighbour in an effort to stop the spread.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus posted on social media that the region was in the midst of a “catastrophic collision of disease and conflict with the Ebola outbreak in Ituri province outpacing the response”. Tedros said on Monday that he would travel to the DRC this week.
The number of suspected cases in eastern DRC is nearing 1,000, with at least 220 suspected deaths. The country’s health ministry said on Tuesday that 101 cases had been confirmed, and it was looking into more than 3,000 possible contacts. In Uganda there seven confirmed cases and one death as of Sunday, WHO data showed.
Aid group Save the Children said on Wednesday that a quarter of the confirmed deaths were children, calling for infection prevention measures to be urgently scaled up. Aid groups are rushing staff and equipment to eastern DRC but attacks on medics due to community distrust have hampered efforts, they say.
Diana Atwine, a senior Ugandan health official, told a press conference on Wednesday that Uganda’s border would be closed for four weeks, except to Ebola response teams, humanitarian and security operations and food and cargo transport. Any person who was authorised to enter Uganda from the DRC would be required to undergo mandatory self-isolation for 21 days, she said.
Eastern DRC has a number of armed groups. Though the government still largely controls Ituri, insecurity had been worsening there before the Ebola outbreak. Almost 1 million people in the province have been displaced by conflict, according to the UN humanitarian office. The outbreak has spread south to rebel-held areas of North Kivu and South Kivu provinces, where the Rwandan-backed M23 group controls large swathes of the region.
