BUNIA, DR Congo, July 6 — Ebola-related warnings are impossible to miss in Kigonze, an internally displaced persons (IDP) camp on the outskirts of Bunia in Ituri Province, eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
A white sign bearing the words “STOP EBOLA” greets visitors at the camp. Plastic handwashing stations dot the narrow paths between shelters.
Health workers move briskly among newly built treatment facilities, while children carry yellow jerrycans of water and women prepare meals outside modest homes built for families who fled one crisis only to find themselves caught in another.
For years, the displaced families living on the edge of Bunia, the capital of Ituri Province, have endured hunger, overcrowding, inadequate sanitation, chronic water shortages, and limited access to healthcare. Then came Ebola.
“We estimate the population here at between 18,000 and 20,000 people, divided into 5,055 households,” said Sijudose Etienne, president of the Kigonze displacement site. The camp, he said, is split into three sectors and 73 blocks. “There is a lack of medicines, a lack of water,” Etienne said.
“It has already been four years since we received any assistance.” The latest Ebola outbreak in the DRC has now killed more than 500 people. According to a situation report released Sunday by the country’s health authorities, the country has recorded 1,561 confirmed cases, including 506 deaths.
In Kigonze, about 45 people have died in the camp since May, including both adults and children, Etienne said. Twenty of those deaths were confirmed to have been caused by Ebola virus disease.
“Today, the main problem is the Ebola epidemic,” he said. The DRC declared the outbreak on May 15. Its epicenter lies in Ituri, a province already burdened by armed conflict, mass displacement, and fragile public services.
Health officials fear not only that the virus will continue spreading, but that it will sweep through crowded displacement sites like Kigonze, where preventing transmission is exceptionally difficult.
DRC Minister of Social Affairs Eve Bazaiba warned Thursday that Ituri has about 1.15 million displaced people living across 69 displacement facilities. Should Ebola spread widely through those camps, she cautioned, daily infections could climb to at least 1,000.
In Kigonze, latrines are overflowing, forcing residents to empty them themselves, sometimes by hand. Water remains scarce, soap is often unavailable, and families live in cramped shelters where disease can spread quickly. Children frequently fall ill before their parents know where to seek treatment.
Bienvenu Loli, who has lived in Kigonze for nine and a half years, said access to healthcare remains one of the camp’s biggest challenges. “Children fall ill and deaths are frequent, without the possibility of evacuating them to the hospital,” he said.
A glimmer of hope arrived on July 2, when an emergency health center for displaced people began operating inside Kigonze. The facility provides free primary healthcare, speeds up screening for suspected Ebola cases, and ensures patients can be safely referred to specialized treatment centers. An Ebola transit center is also under construction within the camp.
“This center is very important because the population is very mobile and contacts are frequent,” said Tsuve Vagho Prisca, a nurse working at the site. “When there are suspected cases, we immediately isolate them from healthy people.” The frontline defenses remain simple: handwashing, early detection, isolation, community awareness, and rapid referral.
Camp leaders have urged residents to avoid physical contact with sick people or the deceased and to wash their hands regularly. Yet the virus is spreading faster than awareness can keep pace. “Each time, the cases increase quickly,” said Marienne Ilobe, who has lived in Kigonze for seven years.
“I do not really understand this kind of disease called Ebola.” The current outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo strain of the Ebola virus. On Thursday, the World Health Organization announced that a clinical trial had begun enrolling patients in the DRC to evaluate potential treatments for Bundibugyo Ebola, for which there is currently neither an approved vaccine nor a specific treatment.
According to the DRC health authorities, clinical trials have begun at the CME Ebola treatment center in Rwampara health zone, the outbreak’s epicenter in Ituri. (Namibia Daily News / Xinhua)
