Ebola death toll in DR Congo surpasses 1,000

Relatives of Vanisa Anifa, a 6-month-old orphaned girl who died of Ebola, attend her burial, in Bunia, Congo, Friday, June 19, 2026. Moses Sawasawa/AP hide caption toggle caption Moses Sawasawa/AP KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo—More than 1,000 people have died of Ebola in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, according to official figures released Thursday, with the outbreak showing no sign of slowing. Health workers have recorded 2,536 cases of Ebola, as well as 1,033 deaths, since the conflict-torn central African nation declared an epidemic May 15. Congolese Prime Minister Judith Suminwa will travel to the Ebola hotspots in the east of the country Thursday to "assess the realities on the ground," the government stated, accompanied by officials from the US and the United Nations. Health responders say the conditions on the ground are dire, with fragile hospitals overwhelmed and health responders struggling to catch up to the scale of the epidemic. The situation is "worsening day by day," Amadou Bocoum, the Congo director for the aid organization CARE International, told NPR. He pointed to deficiencies in contact tracing, funding and a rapid geographic expansion of the dis...