Why Ebola keeps returning to DRC: A heartbreaking human toll

Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo – Sadiki Patrick, 40, is still grappling with the loss of his 15-year-old daughter, Judith, in Mongbwalu, a mining town in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Judith is one of the latest victims of Ebola as the country battles yet another outbreak, the seventeenth in just 50 years.

“It is heartbreaking to lose my third child in the prime of her youth,” Patrick, whose name has been changed to protect his identity, told Al Jazeera.

“I sent her to school so that she could be educated and become a valuable member of society. Now, she is a thing of the past,” he said, his voice heavy with sorrow.

He described the situation in Mongbwalu as dire, accusing authorities of failing to act quickly enough to contain the outbreak before it had spread.

According to Congolese authorities, Mongbwalu is where the first cases of the new Ebola outbreak were reported. Residents describe daily deaths in the village, while local health services struggle to respond.

The recurring epidemics in the DRC highlight how fragile healthcare systems, poverty, and ongoing conflict leave communities especially vulnerable to deadly diseases.

Why Ebola keeps returning

Francine Mbona Pendeza, a Congolese doctor who helped fight Ebola in the North Kivu province between 2018 and 2020, said that unsafe food practices, limited access to clean water, and weaknesses in the healthcare system are a major factor in the repeated epidemics.

“Our people are used to eating raw or undercooked food. We grill meat that isn’t cooked through, which allows germs to thrive and causes outbreaks. Another factor is access to clean water, which is dire in the DRC,” she told Al Jazeera.

She added that hospitals in remote areas are difficult to reach. “To find a hospital, especially in remote areas, you have to travel many kilometres. And sometimes, you might reach a hospital only to find unqualified staff.”

Congolese authorities insist that teams are working hard to contain this strain of Ebola. The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) announced on Tuesday that its team of experts had arrived in Bunia, the capital of Ituri province, to “strengthen the response to the ongoing Ebola epidemic.” The team includes field epidemiologists, as well as specialists in data collection, risk communication, and community mobilisation.

The DRC has seen an average of one Ebola outbreak every three years. The tenth outbreak, of the Zaire strain, devastated North Kivu and Ituri between 2018 and 2020, killing more than 2,300 people.

Gaps in healthcare access

For Dr Mbona, the lack of easy access to quality healthcare lies at the heart of the resurgence of epidemics in the DRC. “If a person is ill and cannot find treatment, they can easily infect others.

Elsewhere, medical care is free. Here, everything costs money. Someone who has no money has no access to care, and may end up infecting others while lying in bed,” she said.

In December 2025, the DRC announced the end of its sixteenth Ebola outbreak in the Bulape region, deep in Congolese territory. Forty days ago, authorities had also declared the mpox outbreak over across the country. Yet, health officials warned that vigilance remains crucial in case of potential resurgences.

Rodriguez Kisando, a doctor specialising in environmental health, also believes that the failure of the healthcare system makes the DRC a breeding ground for epidemics.

“It is developing very good health policies, structural preventive policies that involve ongoing education of the population regarding habits that help prevent epidemic diseases,” he said.

Given the country’s vast size, he argued, the DRC should bring healthcare facilities closer to the people to improve access to primary care. Poverty and a limited availability of medicines make this urgent, he said.

“We are in a country where health insurance is rare. We also need a proactive health communication strategy, not one that merely reacts to epidemics. Communication should be preventive and widespread. We also need technology,” Kisando emphasised.

According to the latest data from the Congolese Ministry of Health, more than 500 suspected Ebola cases have already been recorded, with more than 130 deaths.

Sadiki Patrick can hardly believe what happened to his daughter. She had shown symptoms of malaria in April, and was initially treated at home. She was taken to hospital when her condition worsened.

“Unfortunately, it was too late,” he recalled. “Two days after being admitted to hospital, she passed away. Because we couldn’t afford it, she had to be treated at home.”

Patrick and his family have tested negative for Ebola.

‘Natural habitat’ for pathogens

Alphonsine Muhoza, a Congolese doctor, said the rise in epidemics in the DRC was due to a complex mix of environmental, biological, socioeconomic, and structural factors that make the country particularly vulnerable to pathogens.

She added that the DRC, home to the world’s second-largest tropical forest, is a “natural habitat” for numerous viruses and bacteria. “Deforestation, agricultural expansion, and hunting bring people into direct contact with reservoir animals, such as bats, primates, and rodents, facilitating the spread of diseases like Ebola” and mpox, she told Al Jazeera.

Dr Alphonsine linked the frequency of epidemics to weaknesses in the health sector, including low vaccination coverage, which allows preventable diseases such as measles and polio to spread, and inconsistent motivation among healthcare staff.

Gloire Koko, a geopolitical analyst, describes epidemics in eastern DRC as “consequences” of armed conflicts and an ongoing lack of security.

“People are focused on the war effort and forget that other sectors, particularly healthcare, exist,” he said. “In eastern DRC, many communities rely on healthcare supported by state partners, such as WHO and other NGOs. In a context of war and conflict, many UN agencies and NGOs may not be able to implement their programmes as they would like.”

Koko added that the security risks may also discourage people from visiting doctors.

‘We will get it under control’

The nonprofit Save the Children has warned that the crisis could worsen.

“The Ebola outbreak is a new massive crisis on top of an already difficult situation, with a unique set of circumstances making this outbreak much harder to contain than recent ones,” DRC country director Greg Ramm said in a statement on Tuesday.

“It is in an area of conflict, an area of humanitarian crisis, with hundreds of thousands displaced, and healthcare systems already severely compromised.

Christophe Milenge, a resident of Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, and a motorbike taxi driver, blamed the climate for the epidemics.

“I believe our climate here in the Democratic Republic of Congo is conducive to the serious diseases we have seen in recent years. And that is something we cannot control,” he said.

Speaking to Al Jazeera over the phone, Congolese Professor Jean Jacques Muyembe, a virologist and co-discoverer of Ebola in 1976, declined to comment on the strength of the Congolese healthcare system.

“Our surveillance system failed during this Ebola outbreak. But we have experience in this area, and we will get it under control,” he said.

Meanwhile, families continue to grieve loved ones lost to the outbreak.

“From now on, there will be an empty seat at our dining table,” Patrick said of Judith. “We miss her so much, and I would love to see her again, in bliss.”