The United Nations emergency food agency has issued an urgent appeal for funding, warning that escalating hunger is severely undermining efforts to contain an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) that has infected over 3,200 people.
Declared on 15 May 2026, the outbreak in eastern DRC is the fastest growing on record and is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, which leads to full-blown Ebola characterized by severe bleeding and a fatality rate of approximately 40 percent. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), this is the largest outbreak caused by this virus to date.
The epidemic affects 48 health zones across five provinces: Ituri, North Kivu, South Kivu, Tshopo, and Haut-Uele. Ituri, the epicenter of the outbreak, is also one of the country's most severe hunger hotspots, with 1.9 million people facing crisis-level food insecurity or worse.
More than 2.65 million people in the affected zones suffer from acute food insecurity, including over 628,000 in emergency conditions, as reported by the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).
Carl Skau, acting Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP), emphasized the link between hunger and the epidemic, stating, “Ebola feeds on delay, fear and hunger. Stopping this outbreak requires all hands on deck and communities at the centre.”
The WFP highlights that addressing hunger helps reduce population movement in search of food, supports safe isolation, lowers the risk of harmful coping strategies, and creates conditions for health workers to operate safely and effectively.
Since the outbreak began, the UN Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) has conducted 495 flights, transporting 3,395 humanitarian responders and delivering 56 metric tonnes of essential cargo to frontline locations, including newly affected provinces such as Haut-Uele and Tshopo.
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