At least 30 people have died since the beginning of May at a camp for displaced civilians in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo — a death toll that camp officials describe as unlike anything they have seen before, and one that raises serious concerns that Ebola may be spreading rapidly and going undetected.
The deaths occurred at Kigonze camp in Bunia, which sits at the center of Congo’s current Ebola outbreak and is home to more than 15,000 residents. Confirming the exact cause of death proved difficult because camp residents — both the sick and the families of those who died — refused testing until Thursday, according to a camp spokesperson and Catholic aid organization Caritas.
Despite the lack of confirmed test results, all of those who died displayed symptoms commonly linked to Ebola, including headaches, fever, and vomiting. That information came from a camp spokesperson, a grieving father, three aid organization sources, and a civil society leader who all spoke with Reuters.
“People didn’t just die like this before,” said camp spokesperson Desire Grodya Bapi.
Camp President Dz’djo Ndrutsi Etienne said 10 people were buried in just one week. Grodya noted that under normal circumstances, the camp sees between one and three deaths per month.
Justin Zanamuzi, director of Caritas — a Catholic aid group that serves Kigonze’s residents — said his team observed several bodies covered in sheets on Wednesday, including those of a pregnant woman and children. Video footage from Thursday, shared by a civil society leader and confirmed as authentic by Reuters, showed health workers dressed in hazmat suits disinfecting bodies and preparing small coffins beside a crucifix while mourners grieved nearby.
“Our team tried to persuade people to accept doctors to inspect the bodies. They completely refused,” Zanamuzi said.
Congolese authorities first announced the outbreak on May 15, though officials indicated deaths had been occurring earlier in the month. Grodya said health workers have since collected samples from five victims and are waiting for the results. Officials noted that cholera, which produces symptoms similar to Ebola, can also spread rapidly in overcrowded communities, though it generally does not pass directly from person to person.
Camp resident Kato Lonu, 47, lost two of his children, including a 6-month-old infant. “These are conditions that no human being should have to live in. If you look around, people are dying one after another,” he said.
Four aid workers said the surge in deaths reflects how cuts to funding for water, hygiene, and sanitation services have left communities more vulnerable to diseases like Ebola, which spreads through bodily fluids including human waste. They pointed to reductions by donors including the United States under President Donald Trump as a key factor.
United Nations data showed that funding for toilets and handwashing stations in Congo fell by more than half between 2024 and 2025, dropping to roughly $38 million. This year’s appeal for $80 million has received only 21% of the needed funding.
Congo has hundreds of camps sheltering civilians displaced by war, some housing as many as 100,000 people. Ebola deaths have already been confirmed in another camp in the same Ituri province, which accounts for more than 90% of the nearly 900 confirmed cases.
In Kigonze, large families share plastic tents positioned less than a meter apart, and children walk barefoot through dirt pathways. Toilets bearing USAID markings — referring to the U.S. international aid agency that was dismantled under Trump — are present in the camp, and an aid source confirmed the agency helped fund their construction. However, both Grodya and the aid source said there are too few toilets and they frequently overflow.
“The latrines, they fill up very quickly, and people have to empty them themselves, with their bare hands,” Grodya said.
Washington had been the leading contributor to water, sanitation, and hygiene services in Congo, providing more than $60 million in such support in 2024, according to a summary shared by a former USAID official. The Trump administration has defended the funding reductions, saying the focus is on what it calls “hyper-prioritised life-saving humanitarian assistance.” Washington has also committed more than $375 million in direct Ebola funding.
The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and Reuters was unable to determine exactly how much U.S. funding, if any, currently flows to Kigonze.
Four aid organizations — Mercy Corps, Danish Refugee Council, CARE International, and Oxfam — said their U.S.-funded sanitation projects for displaced people across the three Ebola-affected provinces were either scaled back or eliminated following last year’s funding cuts. Mercy Corps reported that in 2024 it built 82 water taps and more than 400 public toilets serving over 125,000 displaced people. This year, due to funding reductions, just six taps and no public toilets are serving fewer than 19,000 people.
