DRC Ebola Tops 1,000 Cases as Hard-Won Lessons from Past Outbreaks Face New Test 

23 June 2026

More than five weeks after the Democratic Republic of Congo declared its latest Ebola outbreak, confirmed cases have passed 1,000. The milestone is a warning that the systems and trust needed to contain Ebola are being pushed to keep pace, as the outbreak continues to spread in high-risk settings, including crowded displacement sites. 

A hard lesson from the 2014 West Africa and 2018 DRC Ebola outbreaks is proving critical again: medical care alone cannot stop Ebola. Containment depends on early detection, contact tracing, referrals, and safe care, but also on families trusting the response enough to report symptoms, share contacts, change hygiene practices, and accept safe and dignified burials. This outbreak is testing that lesson in a response environment strained by reduced funding, difficult access, high population movement, and stretched health, water and sanitation services.  

Mercy Corps is mounting a large-scale integrated Ebola prevention and response in Bunia and surrounding affected areas, focused on the places where transmission risk meets daily life: health facilities, schools, markets, transport depots, and other busy public spaces. The response focuses on water, sanitation, and infection prevention; risk communication and community engagement through local radio; and psychosocial support for frontline workers and affected families, with protection and conflict mitigation built in across the work. At one busy transport point, a motorbike taxi rider told Mercy Corps teams he disinfects his motorcycle before and after carrying passengers because “we cannot know who is sick or where they come from.” This type of local responsibility and ownership is what containment depends on and must be supported. 

Onesphore Bangenza, Mercy Corps’ Ebola Response Team Leader in Bunia, says: 

“What we are seeing now feels very familiar from 2018 only that this time, we are working in a more constrained response environment. 

“The lesson from 2018 is that communities do not change because they are told once what to do. They change when people they trust are part of the response. In 2018, survivors speaking on local radio helped people believe that Ebola was real, because they were hearing from people who had been sick, received care, and survived. That is still true now. Local leaders, religious leaders, women and youth groups, local health workers, transport workers, and survivors can help families seek care early and accept safe burial without feeling their dignity has been taken away. 

“In an outbreak where we still do not fully know how far the virus has spread, losing trust means losing time, and losing time gives the virus more room to spread. We are still hearing from some people who do not believe Ebola is a disease, or who believe it can be treated through prayer or traditional medicine rather than medical care. That kind of delay is dangerous.” 

Rose Tchwenko, Mercy Corps DRC Country Director, says: 

“The question is not whether DRC can fight Ebola. It can, and it has. The country has faced Ebola before, but this time is different. Ebola is landing in a humanitarian response already forced to prioritize the most urgent needs. Health workers are being asked to do more with less, gaps in water and sanitation infrastructure are making prevention harder, humanitarian access constraints are slowing movement of people and supplies and communities already pushed to the brink by hunger, conflict and displacement. After 18 months of drastic cuts, the aid system is still reeling.  

“Preparedness is more than a stockpile, a lab test, or a response plan. It is the trust between health workers and families seeking care, between local leaders and community members, and between a survivor’s testimony and someone afraid to seek care. When those relationships are strong, the response moves faster. When they are weak, fear fills the gap, and Ebola gets more time to spread. 

“Donors and response partners must fund the full chain of containment. That means fast, flexible support for frontline health workers, surveillance, testing, contact tracing, infection prevention, clean water, safe access, local responders, and community engagement to rebuild trust and restore confidence. Underfunding one pillar of the response slows progress on every pillar.” 

Since 2007, Mercy Corps has supported communities in DRC through improved access to clean water and sanitation, increased livelihood opportunities, promoting good governance, and emergency support in the wake of natural disasters. 

 

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