SECOND EBOLA OUTBREAK FOUND IN MAJOR HUB

KINSHASA Authorities in Congo announced a new Ebola outbreak in the western city of Mbandaka on Monday, adding to another epidemic of the virus that has raged in the east since 2018.

Cases have been detected in six people, four of whom have died in the city, a trading hub of 1.5 million people on the Congo River with regular transport links to the capital Kinshasa.

Mbandaka is 1,000 km from an ongoing outbreak that has killed over 2,200 people in North Kivu province by the Uganda border, where containment efforts have been hampered by armed conflict. The new outbreak is Congo’s 11th since the virus was discovered near the Ebola River in 1976.

The discovery is a major blow for the DRC, which has suffered three Ebola outbreaks since 2017. It is also combating a measles epidemic that has killed over 6,000 and COVID-19, which has killed 71.