The number of confirmed Ebola cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo has officially passed 3,000, while health workers at a treatment centre in the epicentre of the outbreak have gone on strike over unpaid performance bonuses.
Government statistics released on Friday put the confirmed case count at 3,075, with 755 patients currently hospitalised or in isolation. The death toll has reached 1,354. This year's outbreak, driven by the rare Bundibugyo ebolavirus strain, has killed over 1,000 people and reached the grim milestone nearly three times faster than the 2014-2016 epidemic, which is considered the worst on record.
Strike at Ebola Treatment Centre
A hundred doctors, nurses and security staff at The Elikya Ebola Treatment Centre in Bunia, Ituri province, staged a walkout and protested outside the centre on Saturday afternoon. In a statement issued on Friday, staff said they would continue their industrial action until "concrete solutions" were found to resolve "two months of unpaid performance bonuses."
Martin Bolombi, one of the health workers on strike, said: "We need to be paid, because in the meantime the disease is spreading at the treatment centre. I've already had five people who died still inside there. A solution must be found for us."
Dr. Adelard Lufungula, operations manager for the Ebola response, said the payment issue is "being resolved" with workers now paid via mobile payments instead of cash, and that the backlog "should be cleared" in the coming days.
Wider Outbreak and New Treatments
Last week, healthcare workers at Bunia General Hospital — the largest hospital in the region — went on strike over unpaid wages. Staff said they have not received any wages since the beginning of the outbreak in May 2026.
The virus has now spread across five of DR Congo's eastern provinces: Ituri, North Kivu, South Kivu, Haut-Uélé, and Tshopo. The current outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo ebolavirus strain, which has a fatality rate of approximately 40% and does not have a fully approved vaccine or treatment.
DR Congo's Prime Minister Judith Suminwa Tuluka said on Friday she was hopeful new treatments could reach the clinical trial stage over the coming months. Clinical trials for experimental vaccines targeting the Bundibugyo strain are already underway, including human trials led by the University of Oxford.
