18 Escaped Ebola Patients Still Unaccounted 48 Hours After Mongbwalu ETU Fire

Forty-eight hours after the Mongbwalu MSF Ebola Treatment Unit was set ablaze on the night of May 23, 2026, all 18 suspected Bundibugyo virus patients who fled the burning facility remained unaccounted for, DRC Ministry of Health and WHO confirmed on May 25. Response teams and community health workers conducted house-to-house searches in Mongbwalu and surrounding Djugu Territory villages but were unable to locate any of the escaped patients. Officials described the situation as 'a public health catastrophe within a catastrophe.' Each escaped patient represented an untraceable transmission chain: with a 21-day incubation period, contacts made in the 48 hours since the escape might not show symptoms for weeks. WHO field teams estimated 300+ community contacts from the 18 escaped individuals based on household density in Mongbwalu. Simultaneously, PBS NewsHour confirmed via MSF field reports that no security incidents had occurred in Mongbwalu on May 25, suggesting the armed group responsible for the fire had withdrawn, but health worker teams were still unable to operate freely in the area.