At least 30 people have died since early May at a displacement camp in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, raising fears that Ebola may be spreading undetected among vulnerable communities, according to camp officials and aid workers.
The deaths occurred at Kigonze camp in Bunia, the epicentre of Congo’s current Ebola outbreak. The camp houses more than 15,000 people displaced by conflict.
The cause of the deaths has not been confirmed because patients and relatives had refused to allow health workers to test sick residents or examine bodies until Thursday, camp representatives and the Catholic aid organisation Caritas told Reuters.
However, victims reportedly suffered headaches, fever and vomiting — symptoms associated with Ebola, but which can also occur with other diseases, including cholera.
“People didn’t just die like this before,” camp spokesperson Desire Grodya Bapi said.
Camp officials said Kigonze normally recorded between one and three deaths each month. Ten people were buried this week alone.
Justin Zanamuzi, director of Caritas, said his team saw several bodies covered with sheets on Wednesday, including those of children and a pregnant woman.
Video recorded on Thursday showed health workers wearing protective suits disinfecting bodies and preparing small coffins as relatives mourned.
“Our team tried to persuade people to accept doctors to inspect the bodies. They completely refused,” Zanamuzi said.
Health workers have since taken samples from five victims and are awaiting laboratory results.
Congo declared the outbreak on May 15, although officials said deaths linked to the disease had begun earlier that month.
Kato Lonu, a 47-year-old resident of Kigonze, said he had lost two children, including a six-month-old baby.
“These are conditions that no human being should have to live in,” he said. “If you look around, people are dying one after another.”
Sanitation crisis deepens risks
The suspected deaths have increased concerns that Ebola could be circulating among eastern Congo’s more than five million displaced people, many of whom live in overcrowded camps with inadequate toilets, clean water and handwashing facilities.
Ebola is transmitted through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person. Poor sanitation and resistance to testing can make outbreaks significantly more difficult to contain.
United Nations data showed that funding for water, sanitation and hygiene programmes in Congo fell by more than half between 2024 and 2025, dropping to approximately $38 million.
A separate $80 million appeal for this year is only 21 percent funded.
In Kigonze, large families share plastic shelters positioned less than a metre apart, while children walk barefoot through crowded dirt pathways.
Some toilets carry the logo of USAID, the American development agency dismantled by the Trump administration. Camp officials said the facilities were insufficient and frequently overflowed.
“The latrines fill up very quickly, and people have to empty them themselves with their bare hands,” Grodya said.
US-funded projects scaled back
The United States provided more than $60 million for water, sanitation and hygiene programmes in Congo during 2024, according to a summary shared by a former USAID official.
Washington has committed more than $375 million in direct funding to fight the current Ebola outbreak. However, several aid organisations said broader sanitation projects in Ebola-affected areas had been reduced or cancelled following US funding cuts.
Mercy Corps, the Danish Refugee Council, CARE International and Oxfam said American-funded projects serving displaced people in the three affected provinces had been scaled back since last year.
Mercy Corps said it built 82 water taps and more than 400 public toilets serving over 125,000 displaced people in 2024.
This year, the organisation said funding cuts had reduced its operations to six taps serving fewer than 19,000 people, with no public toilets being constructed.
Ebola deaths have already been reported at another displacement camp in Ituri province, which accounts for more than 90 percent of Congo’s nearly 900 confirmed cases.