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Tag: Democratic Republic of Congo

  • DRC: The disabled giant

    DRC: The disabled giant

    By Olabode Lucas

    Many informed people on African affairs all over the world are of the opinion that the greatness of Africa and by implication, the black race, would be enhanced and accelerated if Nigeria, South Africa and Democratic Republic of Congo can get their acts together in their political and economic spheres. This lofty optimism is no doubt based on the tremendous human and natural resources of these three giant African countries.

    Unfortunately, these three countries are presently burdened by seemingly intractable internal socio-economic problems that dent their abilities to lift up the rest of Africa as the USA did to Europe after the Second World War. In the seventies, Nigeria showed some promise during the oil boom while presently South Africa is yet to empower its majority black population at home and also, it is unfortunately showing hostility to the rest of Africa currently. Democratic Republic of Congo, which is the third leg of the tripod, has been so burdened politically since its independence in 1960 that presently it has nothing to offer but its scintillating music to the rest of Africa.

    Democratic Republic of Congo, whose names have been changed so many times, has a history of years of rapacious slavery and inhuman colonisation of its people. After centuries of slavery, King Leopold of Belgium formally acquired the right to the Congo territory at the Berlin Conference of 1885 and declared it as his private property with the name of Free Congo State. Thus, the fiendish king took over a territory which was two-third the size of Western Europe and the 11th largest territory in the world as his own personal property!

    From 1885 to1908, his colonial military outfit forced the local population to produce rubber and those who defaulted were subjected to heinous and barbaric hand amputation. In 1908, King Leopold eventually ceded his so-called property to his country and the name of the territory changed to Belgian Congo.

    As a Belgian colony, DR Congo suffered untold neglect. The Belgians were only interested in the enormous mineral resources of its colony, and they did nothing to improve the health, education and infrastructural facilities of the area under their control. The Belgians regarded the Congolese as sub-human.

    Despite the pre-historic era situation in Congo, the Belgians latched into the wind of change movement of the sixties to grant independence to Congo on January 30, 1960. It was nothing but paper independence. At independence, there was no Congolese doctor, engineer or trained local professionals to manage the newly independent country. In a country with a land area of 905,567square miles, the Belgian constructed less than 100 miles of motorable road. This parlous state of development of Congo at independence so irked the new Prime Minister of Congo, Patrice Lumumba, that he insulted openly the king of Belgium and his country for their criminal neglect of his country. From that day, the brave and charismatic Patrice Lumumba became a marked man and was gruesomely murdered in January 1961.

    At independence, Democratic Republic of Congo descended into political and administrative chaos because the political awareness and development in the new country was very rudimentary. The country was immediately confronted by a series of secessionist agitations fuelled by the West. There was the puppet Moise Tshombe in the mineral-rich Katanga province and the barely literate Kalonge in the Kivu province refusing to take orders from the central government led by Patrice Lumumba. Lumumba was eventually eliminated and the country descended to more chaos until Joseph Mobutu took over the reins of government in 1965.

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    The trauma suffered by DR Congo under the Belgian brutal colonialism is compounded up till the present time by successive inept and corrupt leaders who ruled the country since the country’s paper independence. The most notorious and infamous of these leaders was Joseph Mobutu, a failed journalist who was made the head of Congolese military by Patrice Lumumba who he eliminated through the urgings of Western power. Mobutu took over power in DRC in 1965 and he renamed the country Zaire in 1965.

    Mobutu who called himself Field Marshall Mobutu Sese Seko, Kuku Ngbendu Waza Banga was an unmitigated disaster to his country. He ran this otherwise well-endowed country aground. Mobutu’s reign was characterized by political repression, execution of political opponents and ostentatious lifestyle. He used his country’s money to acquire medieval estates in Europe while his people wallowed in abject poverty. He was removed in 1997 during the first Congo war led by Laurent Kabila who was supported by Rwanda and Uganda. Mobutu died in exile and his unmarked grave lies in foreigners’ cemetery in Morocco. Laurent Kabila who succeeded Mobutu was equally disastrous and was assassinated during the second Congo war between 1998-2003. The war claimed five million lives. 

    Laurent Kabila was succeeded by his son, Joseph Kabila who ruled from 2001 to 2019 with nothing to show except high level corruption and victimization of the people. He tried all the tricks in the book to elongate his stay in power. Joseph Kabila was succeeded in 2018 after a contentious election by the present President Felix Tshisekedi.  Tshisekedi is presently distracted by the war going on in the Eastern part of his country.

    Democratic Republic of Congo is in the news again for all the wrong reasons. The activities of the rebel group known as March 23 movement (M23) is again destabilising the Eastern part of the country. The group formed in 2012 is led by a barely literate man called Sultani Mekenga who knows nothing but war. This man has led its movement to capture Goma, the capital of Eastern part of Congo and his movement thoroughly routed DRC army with the support of Rwanda soldiers. 

    Paul Kagame, the President of Rwanda has denied that his country is supporting the M23 militia and said that his country’s troops at DR Congo’s border were there in order to prevent the Hutus rebel stationed in DR Congo from mounting another genocide war against the Tutsis in his country as it happened in 1994. It is difficult to believe Kagame who, despite his false credentials as a statesman is a war monger who has his eyes on the rich minerals in DR Congo. Already since the present conflict started in 2012, Rwanda has been trading in minerals taken from DR Congo. All efforts by UN, AU and other organisations to get Kagame to withdraw his troops from DR Congo have not been heeded by him.

    For more than 60 years, DR Congo has been in turmoil and there is no solution in sight. Africans can no longer afford to see such an endowed country in the heart of the continent being crippled economically and politically. The international community has a duty to do more to bring sanity to DR Congo through the UN, AU, and regional bodies like East Africa Community (EAC) and Southern African Development Community (SADC). First, the unwarranted invasion and suffocation of DR Congo by Rwanda under Kagame and Uganda should be met by the stiffest of sanctions. Secondly, the political governance of DR Congo needs to be re-examined. A country as vast as DR Congo with myriads of ethnic groups, coupled with infrastructure and terrain challenges cannot continue to be governed from Kinshasa which is thousands of miles from other major parts of the country in a unitary and ineffective way. There is a need for a decentralisation of governance in DR Congo.

    The conflicts in DR Congo are embarrassments to Africa. It is alleged that the conflicts are the bloodiest since the end of the Second World War. DR Congo is no doubt a crippled giant and a festering sore in the heart of the African continent. Something urgent has to be done to get this country out of this quagmire.

    •Prof Lucas writes from Old Bodija, Ibadan.

  • AFCON 2019: Uganda’s Desabre targets knockout stages

    Uganda head coach Sébastien Desabre has revealed his ambition for this year’s continental showpiece. The 2019 Africa Cup of Nations officially kicks-off in Egypt on Friday with Uganda in action a day later against the Democratic Republic of Congo in Cairo.

    Desabre’s men are paired alongside the host nation, while Zimbabwe round off what is a competitive Group A.

    While Egypt are clear favourites to progress as group winners, the other three teams are all very closely matched. The Cranes, who lost to the Pharaohs in Gabon two years ago, will be desperate to improve on their showing at the 2017 tournament where they finished bottom of the group.

    Read Also: Eaglets must beat Uganda U-17 — Nwosu

    “The camp where we prepared for the African Cup of Nations was the first step for us as we spent two weeks in Abu Dhabi, and I am very happy to be here in Egypt and I hope to achieve the title,” Desabre told EN Sports.

    “Egypt is a big team, but there are other big teams in the tournament and we can not ignore them. Our focus will be on Zimbabwe and Congo because all the games are tough. Winning two matches in the group stage means qualifying for the next round.”

     

  • Congo under mounting foreign pressure for vote recount

    Democratic Republic of Congo faced growing pressure from African neighbours and beyond on Monday for a recount of its contested presidential election in a dispute that threatens more violence in the volatile nation.

    The Dec. 30 vote was supposed to herald Congo’s first democratic transfer of power in six decades of independence and a new era after President Joseph Kabila’s chaotic 18-year rule.

    But monitoring groups noted widespread irregularities including faulty voting machines and poorly run polling stations, overshadowing talk of democratic progress in the vast country of 80 million people.

    Second-place finisher, former Exxon Mobil Executive Martin Fayulu, says he in fact won by a landslide with over 60 per cent of votes.

    The official winner, opposition leader, Felix Tshisekedi, struck a deal with Kabila to be declared the victor.
    Tshisekedi and Kabila deny this.

    The International Conference of the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), a 12-member body including Kinshasa allies Angola and Republic of Congo, expressed “great concern”.

    “We suggest that the competent structures consider counting the votes in order to guarantee the transparency of the results,” it added in a statement.

    Pressure on Kabila has built since the vote, in part because Congo’s influential Catholic Church said tallies by its 40,000-strong monitoring team show a different winner to that announced by the electoral commission.

    France, Belgium, the U.S. and Britain have all expressed concern.

    But perceived criticism from inside Africa could hold greater sway, with approval from regional partners critical for the legitimacy of president-elect Tshisekedi.

    The CIRGL statement late on Sunday echoed the Southern African Development Community (SADC), which contains allies of Kinshasa like South Africa and Angola.

    However, some regional powers remain wary of interfering in Congo in case it stokes violence or influences the result.

    In separate statements on Monday, South Africa and Zambia both softened their tone and said they would not push for a recount.

    Congo Government spokesman, Lambert Mende, said that it was up to the Constitutional Court to decide on a recount.

    “It is not up to an organisation, a foreign state, to tell a judge how to draw his own conclusions,” he said.

    “Recounting the votes is a verification technique that only a judge can decide.”

    Fayulu has gone to the court alleging fraud and the Catholic Church has also weighed in.

    “We recommend that CENI (electoral commission) recount votes to reassure all stakeholders,” said Donatien N’shole, Secretary General of Congo’s Catholic Bishop’s Conference.

    Isolated post-election violence in Congo has many fearing a return to the kind of conflict and upheaval that killed millions since the 1990s and destabilised the region.

    Congo is the world’s leading miner of cobalt, a mineral used in electric car batteries and mobile phones, and Africa’s biggest copper producer.

    It also mines gold and diamonds.

    But unrest, disorganisation and corruption has left many in poverty, dissatisfied with Kabila’s rule.

    Armed groups roam Congo’s eastern border with Uganda and Rwanda, hobbling efforts to contain an Ebola outbreak that has killed nearly 400 people.

    The government canceled the election because of insecurity in these eastern opposition strongholds and in the northwestern town of Yumbi where unrest broke out.

    Clashes between Batende and Banunu ethnic groups in and around Yumbi killed over 400 people over two days in December, a local priest and a civil society activist said on Monday, a death toll three times higher than earlier estimates.

    The fighting on Dec. 16 and 17, 2018, was some of the worst to hit the normally peaceful area in years.

    Some of the surrounding villages remain deserted after hundreds fled across the Congo River into Congo Republic, the sources said. (Reuters/NAN)

     

  • Congo ruling coalition wins legislative majority, constraining president-elect

    Outgoing Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila’s ruling coalition won a majority in legislative elections, a coalition official said on Saturday.

    This was in spite of opposition leader Felix Tshisekedi’s win in the presidential vote the same day.

    The result will likely undercut Tshisekedi’s ability to deliver on campaign promises to make a break with the 18-year Kabila era.

    It will also fuel suspicion that his victory, announced on Thursday, came through a backroom deal that will preserve Kabila’s influence over important ministries and the security forces.

    Kabila is due to step down in the coming days in what was meant to be Congo’s first democratic transfer of power in 59 years of independence.

    But he has signaled he intends to remain involved in politics and might run for president in 2023 when term limits no longer apply.

    The runner-up in the presidential election, Martin Fayulu, filed a fraud complaint on Saturday with Congo’s highest court to challenge the result, a campaign spokeswoman, Eve Bazaiba, told Reuters.

    Fayulu says he won in a landslide in the Dec. 30 ballot with more than 60 per cent of votes and accuses Tshisekedi of striking a deal with Kabila to be declared the winner.

    Tshisekedi’s camp denies that there was any deal with Kabila and says meetings it held with the president’s representatives after the election were meant solely to ensure a peaceful transfer of power.

    The disputed outcome threatens to reawaken violence in the huge and tumultuous central African country where millions have died during civil wars since the 1990s.

    In a tweet before filing the complaint, Fayulu wrote that the election commission CENI’s results “were invented out of whole cloth.

    I demand a hand recount of all votes for the three elections (presidential, national legislative and provincial)”.

    The court has eight days to rule, but Fayulu has already said he does not expect a favorable judgment since the court is made up of Kabila appointees.

    Earlier in the day, about 50 Republican Guard soldiers and police officers surrounded Fayulu’s residence, sending dozens of his supporters, who had been chanting against Kabila and Tshisekedi, fleeing inside, a Reuters witness said.

    Fayulu’s supporters have demonstrated in several cities since the results were announced.

    Protests in the Western city of Kikwit on Thursday turned violent, killing at least four demonstrators and two police officers.

    The parliamentary majority retained by the handful of parties in Kabila’s coalition will curtail Tshisekedi’s room for maneuver.

    Under the constitution, the majority enjoys significant powers and the president must appoint his prime minister from its ranks.

    The prime minister, in turn, must countersign presidential orders appointing or dismissing military chiefs, judges and heads of state-owned enterprises.

    Adam Chalwe, a national secretary for Kabila’s PPRD party, the biggest within the FCC coalition, told Reuters that results from the individual races announced by CENI on Saturday morning showed FCC candidates taking more than 300 out of 500 seats in the National Assembly.

    Reuters was not immediately able to confirm that independently.

    Parties in the FCC coalition accounted for about 350 seats in the previous legislature.

    The coalition’s presidential candidate, Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, finished a distant third with 24 per cent of the vote.

    Pre-election polling had shown the FCC lagging behind opposition parties in legislative races.

    Jean Jacques Mamba, a spokesman for the Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC) party that backs Fayulu and which polls had shown leading the legislative race, said it had won 22 seats, instead of the 40-50 it had expected.

    He accused CENI of rigging the vote using electronic voting machines. CENI officials could not be immediately reached for comment. (Reuters/NAN)

     

  • DR Congo postpones presidential vote to Dec. 30

    Democratic Republic of Congo’s election board has postponed a presidential vote scheduled for Sunday by one week until Dec. 30 after a fire destroyed voting materials.

    Already delayed repeatedly since 2016, the poll is meant to choose a successor to President Joseph Kabila, who is to step down after 18 years in what would be Congo’s first democratic transition.

    After a meeting with candidates in the capital, the electoral commission (CENI) said it had not been able to provide sufficient ballot papers for Kinshasa after a warehouse blaze last week destroyed much of the capital’s election material.

    “We cannot organise general elections without the province of Kinshasa, and without the Kinois voters – who represent 10 per cent of the electoral body,” CENI president Corneille Nangaa said.

    “The presidential, legislative and provincial ballots will take place on Dec. 30, 2018.”

    The decision may stoke already high tensions after several government crackdowns on opposition rallies.

    After the announcement, a crowd outside CENI headquarters started shouting in protest and was pushed back by police.

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    Security forces have killed dozens of people in the past two years demonstrating against Kabila’s refusal to step down when his mandate officially expired in December 2016.

    Hundreds of university students took to the streets in Kinshasa on Thursday, protesting any delay to the vote.

    The postponement decision caps a chaotic week, which saw more than 100 people killed in fights between rival ethnic groups in northwestern Congo and clashes between police and opposition supporters in Kinshasa.

    Those protests erupted after Kinshasa’s governor ordered a halt to campaigning over security fears.

    Campaigning had been due to end at midnight on Friday in what has boiled down to a race between Kabila’s preferred successor, Emmanuel Shadary, and two main challengers, Fayulu and Felix Tshisekedi.

    Shadary has a big advantage due to sizeable campaign funds and ruling party control of many media outlets.

    However, a rare national opinion poll in October had Tshisekedi leading the race with 36 per cent, well ahead of Shadary’s 16 per cent.
    Fayulu had eight per cent.

  • Congo approves four more experimental Ebola treatments as cases rise

    Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has approved four more experimental treatments against the deadly Ebola virus, the health ministry said as it raced to contain an outbreak in its violence-torn east.

    Health authorities on Aug. 11, started administering the U.S.-developed mAb114 treatment to Ebola patients, the first time such a treatment had been used against an active outbreak.

    The DRC health ministry said in a daily bulletin that the 10 patients who received mAb114 since Aug. 11 have experienced a “positive evolution”, but the outbreak has continued to grow.

    The four additional treatments approved by Congo’s ethics committee are Remdesivir, made by Israel’s Gilead Sciences; ZMapp, an intravenous treatment made by San Diego’s Mapp Pharmaceutical; Japanese drug Favipiravir; and one referred to as “Regn3450 – 3471 – 3479”.

    Remdesivir was administered to its first patient in the town of Beni on Tuesday, who is doing well, the ministry said in its bulletin.

    Read Also: Expect more Ebola cases in Congo – WHO

    The ministry said six new cases and four new deaths have been confirmed from the haemmorhagic fever, which causes vomiting and severe diarrhea.

    That brings the total number of deaths to 59 and confirmed cases to 75 since July.

    Congo, whose heavily forested interior makes its a natural home for Ebola, is at the forefront of a global campaign to combat the virus, which killed more than 11,000 people when it swept through West Africa from 2013 to 2016.

    The Central African country has experienced ten Ebola outbreaks since the virus was discovered in northern Congo in 1976, more than twice as many as any other country and 33 people died in a flare-up in the northwest that ended last month.

    In addition, a vaccine manufactured by Merck, which proved effective against the earlier outbreak in northwestern Congo, has been administered to 1,693 health workers and contacts of Ebola patients.

    Insecurity in Congo’s eastern borderlands with Uganda has continued to complicate the response, with some contacts of Ebola patients located in so-called “red-zones”, which are off limits to emergency responders due to militia activity.

    Instead, local health workers in those areas are monitoring the contacts and no Ebola cases have yet been confirmed there.

    NAN

  • Ebola: Medical workers in Congo finish vaccination

    Medical workers in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Tuesday concluded vaccination of Ebola patients in the city of Mbandaka with experimental vaccine, the health ministry said.

    Ebola spreads easily through bodily fluids and the medical strategy involves vaccinating all the people a patient may have infected and then vaccinating a second “ring” of contacts around each of those potential sufferers.

    That would include family members but also people who may have come into contact with a sufferer in church or on public transport, each a potential Ebola time-bomb who must be found and vaccinated by virus-hunting experts.

    The VSV-EBOV vaccine, developed by Merck, has been administered to 1,112 people, including 567 in the northwestern city.

    The ministry said that covers all known contacts of confirmed Ebola cases in the city as well as those people’s contacts.

    There have been no new deaths from Ebola since May 25 and the last confirmed case was recorded on May 29, although health officials say it is too soon to make any definitive pronouncements about the outbreak’s course.

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    The latest data from the health ministry shows 53 cases of Ebola in the outbreak, including 37 confirmed 13 probable and three suspected cases.

    One new suspected case was recorded on Monday in the rural community of Iboko and five suspected cases came back negative, the health ministry said.

    This is the ninth outbreak of Ebola in Congo since the disease was first detected in the country in 1976.

    Health officials have moved aggressively to head off a repeat of the 2013-16 outbreaks in West Africa that killed over 11,300 people.

    The vaccine was first rolled out in Mbandaka on May 21 and hailed as a paradigm shift in the fight against Ebola by the WHO.

    The WHO said on Friday that it was cautiously optimistic about the progress of the response yet Mbandaka’s location directly upstream the Congo River of the capital Kinshasa, a city of more than 10 million people, remains a concern.

    NAN

  • Two new Ebola deaths recorded in Congo

    Two new deaths from Ebola and seven new confirmed cases have been recorded in Democratic Republic of Congo, the health ministry said on Tuesday.

    One of the deaths occurred in the provincial capital of Mbandaka, according to a daily bulletin. A nurse also died in the village of Bikoro, where the outbreak was first detected, ministry spokeswoman Jessica Ilunga told Reuters.

    The seven new confirmed cases were registered in Bikoro, the ministry said.

    Health officials administered an experimental vaccine on Monday to 33 medical workers and Mbandaka residents, WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic told reporters in Geneva.

    The vaccine manufacturer Merck has provided WHO with 8,640 doses of the vaccine and an additional 8,000 doses are expected to be available in the coming days, WHO said.

    Read Also: DR Congo players to be screened for Ebola – Dalung

    Congo’s ninth outbreak of Ebola since 1976 is believed to have killed at least 28 people so far.

    Officials are particularly concerned by its appearance in Mbandaka, a crowded trading hub on the Congo River with road, water and air links to Congo’s capital, Kinshasa.

    NAN reports that the WHO said it will need 26 million dollars for the Ebola Response in the DRC over the next three months.

    WHO said it had also released two million dollars from its Contingency Fund for Emergencies, to scale up the Ebola response.

    The Government of DRC, with the support of WHO partners, is preparing to vaccinate high risk populations against Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in affected health zones.

    The organisation said health workers operating in affected areas were being vaccinated on Monday and community outreach had started to prepare for the ring vaccination.

    More than 7,500 doses of the rVSV-ZEBOV Ebola vaccine have been deployed to DRC to conduct vaccination in the northwestern Equator Province where 46 suspected, probable and confirmed Ebola cases and 26 deaths have been reported – as of Friday.

  • Residents Doctors raise concern over persistent Lassa threat

    The National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has raised concerns about the persistent threat of Lassa Fever in the country.

    This was expressed in a communiqué issued at the end of its 38th Ordinary General Meeting (OGM), held at the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria between May 6 to 11, 2018.

    According to the communiqué jointly signed by its President, Dr. Ugochukwu Chinaka, Secretary General, Dr. Osinachukwu V. Nnadi and Publicity and Social Secretary, Dr. Ugochukwu Eze,  NARD also  rejected pay parity between Doctors and Allied Professionals as this would erode relativity and distort emolument hierarchy in the Health sector.

    “The consequence would not be good for the Health sector. Relativity is sacrosanct,” it explained.

    The group raised concerns about the  continuous threat posed by Lassa fever and other infectious diseases in parts of the Country with its associated risk and  death of Health workers.

    NARD still called on Government to setup Regional Infectious disease centers of Excellence across the country to ease the pressure at ISTH, Irrua and to stem the needless loss of lives to Lassa fever.

    NARD appreciates the recent scale of surveillance at the Country’s land borders and airports. This has helped curb the threat of Ebola Virus, regulate and report entry of suspected infectious individuals and prevent the spread of the deadly disease in Nigeria.

    “The recent Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and response by the Federal Government of Nigeria,” it noted.

    It enjoins all Healthcare workers at all times to imbibe Universal Health precautions and best hygiene practices such as regular handwashing and maintaining personal and environmental cleanliness.

    “NARD again demands Comprehensive Life Insurance for all Healthcare Workers in Nigeria.

    NARD reiterates that security is a right of all Nigerians and demands Government to provide Security for all irrespective of location,” it stated.

    NARD also frowned at the non payment of outstanding salaries to its members at various health centres across the country.

    “NARD frowns at the fact that salaries of our Members at various Federal Health Institutions are still being withheld by earlier mentioned Hospital Management and call on all responsible to urgently pay all outstanding Salaries to our diligent and hardworking Members,” it stated.

    It explained that the ongoing advocacy with the Board of Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH) is welcomed, but NARD wants Government to impress on the JUTH Board and Management to reinstate all unjustly sacked Resident Doctors in JUTH immediately.

    Delegates resolved to extend the ultimatum by 21 days, starting from Monday 14th May 2018. This extension is to avail Government time to reinstate our sacked Members in JUTH with full benefits and also meet outstanding agreement contained in the above stated MOTOS, after which NARD may not guarantee industrial Harmony.

  • Ebola: 17 people die in Congo – Officials

    Officials said 17 people have died in an area of northwestern Democratic Republic of Congo where health officials have now confirmed an outbreak of Ebola.

    It is the ninth time Ebola has been recorded in the central African nation, whose eastern Ebola river gave the deadly virus its name when it was discovered there in the 1970s, and comes less than a year after its last outbreak which killed eight people.

    “Our country is facing another epidemic of the Ebola virus, which constitutes an international public health emergency,” the Health Ministry said in a statement.

    “We still dispose of the well trained human resources that were able to rapidly control previous epidemics,” the ministry said.

    Ebola is believed to be spread over long distances by bats, which can host the virus without dying, as it infects other animals it shares trees with such as monkeys.

    It often spreads to humans via infected bushmeat.

    Before the outbreak was confirmed, local health officials reported 21 patients showing signs of hemorrhagic fever around the village of Ikoko Impenge, near the town of Bikoro.

    Seventeen of those later died.

    Medical teams supported by the World Health Organization and medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres were dispatched to the zone on Saturday and took five samples from suspected active cases.

    Two of those samples tested positive for the Zaire strain of the Ebola virus, the ministry said.

    “Since notification of the cases on May 3, no deaths have been reported either among the hospitalised cases or the healthcare personnel,” the statement said.

    After Congo’s last Ebola flare-up, authorities there approved the use of a new experimental vaccine but in the end did not deploy it owing to logistical challenges and the relatively minor nature of the outbreak.

    The worst Ebola epidemic in history ended in West Africa just two years ago after killing more than 11,300 people and infected some 28,600 as it rolled through Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

    In spite of regular outbreaks every few years, death tolls in Congo have been significantly lower.

    “Our top priority is to get to Bikoro to work alongside the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and partners to reduce the loss of life and suffering related to this new Ebola virus disease outbreak,” said Dr Peter Salama, WHO Deputy Director-General, Emergency Preparedness and Response.

    “Working with partners and responding early and in a coordinated way will be vital to containing this deadly disease.”

    Health experts credit an awareness of the disease among the population and local medical staff’s experience treating for past successes containing its spread.

    Congo’s vast, remote geography also gives it an advantage, as outbreaks are often localised and relatively easy to isolate.

    Ikoko Impenge and Bikoro, however, lie not far from the banks of the Congo River, an essential waterway for transport and commerce.

    Further downstream the river flows past Democratic Republic of Congo’s capital Kinshasa and Brazzaville, capital of neighbouring Congo Republic – two cities with a combined population of over 12 million people.

    Read Also: http://staging.thenationonlineng.net/ebola-outbreak-congo/