“If Ebola arrives, we will be exterminated”: in the DRC, the fear of massive contamination in the camps of displaced people who have fled the conflicts

The fear of massive contamination. While the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is currently in the grip of a major Ebola epidemic, which has already killed 246 people, millions of displaced people fear the arrival of the virus in the makeshift camps in which they have taken refuge.

Because the province of Ituri, the epicenter of the epidemic, is also torn apart by armed conflicts. The east of the DRC “is now facing a catastrophic shock between disease and conflict”, the epidemic “overtaking the health response” in Ituri, warned Wednesday the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who is due to go to Bunia, capital of the province, this Friday, May 29.

More than 25,000 displaced people occupy the Kigonze camp, built in 2018. For the moment, no case of Ebola has been recorded there, but the living conditions in the camp make us fear the worst. “If Ebola arrives, we will be exterminated because we are crowded together,” warns from AFP Dorcas Mapenzi, a displaced person from the Kigonze camp. “We, the displaced here, have no hygiene, our children play next to dirty toilets and even defecate on the ground in the middle of the tarpaulins that serve as our house.”

A very lethal virus, impossible distancing

Déborah Nzale, a widow and mother who also lives in this camp, explains that she lives with nine people in a small 3m² shelter. “With these conditions, how are we going to protect ourselves against this disease, when we are being told about distancing to fight Ebola?” she laments. “If just one person gets infected here in this camp, everyone will die.”

Especially since there is to date no vaccine against the Bundibugyo variant, which is currently prevalent in the DRC, and whose fatality rate can reach 50%. The displaced people of Kigonze have not received any protective equipment at this stage. If tens of tons of equipment have been sent to the DRC and WHO teams deployed, resources are struggling to reach this poorly served area prey to armed groups.

Nearly a million people displaced

Kigonze is, however, only one example of a camp in which contamination could have dramatic consequences: Ituri has nearly 61 displaced persons sites, housing more than 970,000 people, according to the governor of the province, Lieutenant General Johnny Luboya Nkashama, who asked Thursday for “the deployment, as quickly as possible, of equipment as well as qualified and specialized nursing staff”.

Last Saturday, the Congolese authorities announced that they would suspend flights to and from Bunia, as travel was “a significant risk factor” for the spread of the virus. Only humanitarian flights are authorized to land in the capital of Ituri. The head of the WHO is due to go there this Saturday, and is optimistic: “Even if the situation is complex, I think we can stop this thing,” he declared.

At this stage, the epidemic has already caused 246 deaths and the DRC has recorded 1,000 suspected cases. Over the past 50 years, Ebola has killed more than 15,000 people in Africa. In the DRC, the most contagious epidemic left nearly 2,300 dead and 3,500 sick between 2018 and 2020.