Mongbwalu Hospital Hit by Four Attack Waves — 7 More BDBV Patients Escape; MSF Suspends Operations

On the night of May 24–25, 2026, the Mongbwalu hospital and Ebola response facility in Ituri Province came under four successive waves of attack, mobilized by relatives of a Christian religious leader who had died of Bundibugyo virus disease and whose family disputed the safe-burial protocol applied to his remains. Armed community members stormed the compound in repeated waves, causing seven additional suspected BDBV patients to flee into the surrounding population. The attacks continued through May 26 as responders were unable to safely re-enter the facility. Combined with the 18 patients who escaped the May 23 ETU fire, the total number of unaccounted escaped suspected patients from Mongbwalu rose to at least 25 — none successfully located or returned as of May 26. Mongbwalu, which had recorded 322 suspected cases and 88 deaths (the largest concentration in the outbreak), was effectively disabled as a treatment and containment node. MSF announced suspension of all Médecins Sans Frontières operations at the Mongbwalu site pending credible security guarantees from DRC authorities, redirecting incoming patients to the Bunia ETU approximately 70 km to the south. WHO AFRO stated that the repeated attacks represented a 'deliberate endangerment of the broader population' and called urgently for FARDC armed protection for all health facilities across Djugu Territory. Each of the 25 escaped patients represented a potential branching transmission chain in the community, with an estimated 300–400 household and market contacts generated in the days since the first escape.