Kinshasa, May 30 (QNA) - Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has called on local communities in areas affected by the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to play a central role in efforts to combat the disease.

Speaking to reporters after arriving in the city of Bunia, the capital of Ituri Province, which is the main epicenter of the outbreak, Ghebreyesus said that local communities understand the problems better and also know the appropriate solutions, stressing that their ownership of the response remains critical.

He added that the international community is participating in efforts to tackle the outbreak under the leadership of the Government of the DRC, explaining that the WHO delegation is in the country to engage with citizens and officials, understand how the health response is being implemented, and identify field difficulties and challenges in order to provide the necessary support.

The WHO chief arrived in the DRC on Thursday before travelling to Bunia today as part of efforts to coordinate the response aimed at containing the virus outbreak after the number of suspected cases exceeded 1,000.

The Congolese authorities announced a new Ebola outbreak on May 15, 2026, while WHO declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern to address the epidemic.

Ebola virus, which causes a highly contagious hemorrhagic fever, has been detected in three provinces of the DRC and has also spread to neighboring Uganda, where authorities confirmed two new cases on Friday, bringing the total number of confirmed infections there to nine.

In the DRC, data issued by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), affiliated with the African Union, showed 246 deaths among more than 1,000 suspected cases as of Thursday, while the vast majority of confirmed cases are concentrated in Ituri Province, according to WHO.

  Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) warned that the disease is spreading at an unprecedented pace, considering that the current response remains below the required level.

Deputy Director of Operations at MSF, Alain Gonzalez, said today that no Ebola outbreak has ever recorded such a large number of cases within such a short period after being declared. He added that the number of specialized medical organizations working on the ground and the level of support provided to combat the disease remain far below actual needs.

This outbreak is the latest in a series of Ebola waves that have affected the African continent over recent decades, with the disease claiming the lives of more than 15,000 people in Africa over the past 50 years.

Between 2018 and 2020, the DRC experienced its deadliest Ebola outbreak, which resulted in the deaths of about 2,300 people out of 3,500 infected. (QNA)