DRC's Deadliest Ebola Epidemic Ever Passes 7,000 Cases as Outbreak Reaches Schools in Ituri

Congolese authorities reported Thursday, 10 September 2026 (published via AFP wire 12 September), that the outbreak has surpassed 7,000 confirmed cases since its 15 May declaration in Mongbwalu health zone, Ituri province — 7,022 cases and 3,398 deaths, up 80 cases from the prior report, with new cases split across Ituri (30), North Kivu (43), Haut-Uélé (6) and the newly affected Sud-Ubangi (1). Ituri remains the epicenter, accounting for 78.9% of all confirmed cases across the outbreak's seven affected provinces. The milestone coincided with the start of the 2026-27 school year in Ituri's capital Bunia, where Ebola cases have been detected among children in the days after the post-summer-holiday return to class, alarming parents and teachers. Parent Angele Magani said, 'We are very worried because we don't know which child comes from which family or what the health status of the members of that family is.' Schools have installed mandatory hand-washing stations and capped class sizes at roughly 30 pupils in response, per school official Roger Mungimbo. The outbreak is now the largest ever recorded in DRC and, per AP reporting, remains on track to surpass the 2014-16 West Africa epidemic's 11,310 deaths — the deadliest Ebola outbreak in history.