DRC Ebola outbreak has killed 3,901 since May, the country’s largest on record

The death of Marie-Celestin Karondwa underscores the dangers facing those promoting the response to eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Ebola outbreak, which the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention says has already outpaced the 2014–16 west Africa epidemic. Butembo, where Karondwa served as acting president of the Union for Democracy and Social Progress party’s federal executive committee, has become a new hotspot for the outbreak.

The UDPS federation in the city said in a statement, reported by Reuters, that Karondwa was “an innocent victim for having defended the party’s position on the existence of the Ebola virus disease … and the threat it poses to the population.” It was not immediately clear who carried out the attack, how many people were involved, or what motivated it.

Karondwa’s killing came a day after armed men attacked a hand-washing checkpoint in the nearby Beni territory on Saturday, killing at least one person and wounding several others, according to a local civil society group. The incidents are part of a broader pattern of violence against the Ebola response that has included attacks on healthcare workers and treatment centres, riots, property damage, and the disruption of essential services. Experts attribute the violence to rumours and misinformation about the disease and to distrust of health responders.

The current outbreak, first announced on 15 May, is caused by the rare Bundibugyo virus, which has no approved treatment or vaccine. The DRC’s health ministry reports 8,067 infections and 3,901 deaths, with cases confirmed in seven provinces. The outbreak is the largest and deadliest in the country’s history and second only globally to the 2014–16 west Africa epidemic, which infected more than 28,600 people and killed more than 11,000.

Last month, the World Health Organization warned the outbreak was on track to surpass the 2014–16 west Africa outbreak. Experts say the spread has been intensified by conflict, aid cuts, and the attacks on healthcare workers and treatment centres. Ebola, first identified in 1976 in what is now the DRC, is a highly contagious and often fatal viral disease that affects humans and non-human primates. It spreads through body fluids or contaminated materials and causes organ damage, blood vessel impairment, and sometimes severe internal and external bleeding.