The first Ebola-linked deaths have been confirmed inside a displacement camp in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, raising fears that the outbreak could spread rapidly through overcrowded sites sheltering people displaced by years of conflict.
The UN refugee agency said two internally displaced people had died in Kpangba camp, a site in eastern Congo that hosts around 30,000 people. Aid workers said the victims were a mother and daughter, both of whom tested positive for Ebola after their deaths.
The cases mark the first known Ebola deaths inside a displacement camp since the outbreak was declared a public health emergency of international concern by the World Health Organization on May 17.
The outbreak has now spread across Ituri, South Kivu and North Kivu provinces, areas already devastated by decades of armed conflict and home to more than five million displaced people.
A Congolese health ministry report seen by Reuters said a 60-year-old woman in Kpangba camp tested positive for Ebola on May 30. By that time, she had left quarantine and could not be traced by response teams.
She died on May 31, while her daughter died the following day, according to an aid worker familiar with the cases. Humanitarian workers later found the bodies, but the response was met with hostility, with community members reportedly throwing stones at WHO vehicles as they tried to approach.
Health workers have struggled with deep mistrust in affected communities during the nearly month-long outbreak. Some families have reportedly buried highly contagious bodies in secret to avoid official health protocols.
Aid agencies warned that conditions in displacement camps could allow Ebola to spread quickly. In some sites, hundreds of people share a single toilet, while open defecation remains common.
“We are all really worried that Ebola in these camps will spread extremely quickly and that there will be panic and people will flee all over whether or not they’re contacts, whether or not they’re ill,” Caitlin Brady, country director for the Danish Refugee Council in Congo, told Reuters.
The Congolese health report listed eight known contacts for the woman who died in Kpangba camp, underlining the risk of further transmission. The International Organization for Migration, which supports the camp, said it was concerned about additional spread.
An aid source said the camp’s layout made isolation extremely difficult.
“It’s a highly populated area so the risks of transmission are obviously higher and worrying,” the source said. “These are tents with tarp walls, where do you isolate if you have symptoms?”
At another camp in Ituri province, Kigonze, local chief Desire Grodya Bapi said people had been falling ill and dying, although he was not aware of any confirmed Ebola cases there.
As of Friday, Congo had reported 676 confirmed cases and 136 deaths. The outbreak has also reached neighbouring Uganda, where 19 cases have been reported.
The current outbreak involves the rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, for which there is no approved vaccine or treatment. Health workers say the disease went undetected for weeks, leaving first responders racing to contain its spread.
