Ebola spreads to sixth DR Congo province raising fears it could spread to South Sudan

An Ebola outbreak that is on track to become the deadliest in the Democratic Republic of Congo's history has spread to a sixth province, raising fears it could spill into South Sudan.

The outbreak, which began in the conflict-scarred northeastern province of Ituri, is already considered the largest ever in the vast central African country.

Declared on 15 May, it is thought to have already been spreading for several weeks and is the DRC's 17th Ebola outbreak.

The DRC's deadliest Ebola outbreak from 2018-2020 killed nearly 2,300 people out of 3,500 recorded cases.

So far, authorities say the current outbreak has killed more than 2,128 people, out of 4,566 confirmed cases.

Until now, five Congolese provinces had been affected: Ituri, which borders Uganda and South Sudan, North Kivu and South Kivu, Haut-Uele and Tshopo.

A person has now died from the virus in northern Bas-Uele province after travelling from neighbouring Haut-Uele, Jean Kaseya, the head of Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (ACDC), told reporters on Thursday.

The outbreak is spreading at an unprecedented rate, Africa CDC added.

Three months after it was declared, seven times more cases and five times more deaths were recorded in the DRC than during the first three months of the largest Ebola outbreak in history, which hit west Africa in 2014, Africa CDC said.

However, the World Health Organisation on Wednesday said it hoped to reverse the spread of Ebola in the DRC within three months.

Mercy Corps NGO warned on Thursday about the risk of the virus spreading to South Sudan, which borders both Ituri and Haut-Uele.

"Confirmed cases now sit just 35 kilometres from the South Sudan border, along high-risk travel corridors," it said in a statement.

The response in the DRC is hampered by stretched health services, insufficient clean water and safe toilets, fragile trust and insecurity, it added.

Some of the provinces where Ebola is present are densely populated and have only a weak government presence and largely lacking health infrastructure.

North Kivu and South Kivu are also split by the front lines between the Congolese army and the anti-government armed group M23, backed by Rwanda, which has seized vast swathes of territory.

Ebola, which spreads through contact with bodily fluids and causes a haemorrhagic fever, has killed more than 15,000 people in Africa over the past 50 years.