At the Mpondwe crossing between Uganda and Congo, merchant Leah Masika watched helplessly as her plantain shipment began deteriorating in a miles-long line of stalled trucks. Water was seeping from her produce, which would become worthless within hours without movement through the checkpoint.
The businesswoman found herself waiting for official approval to move cargo through the border facility on Thursday, after authorities blocked vehicle passage as part of intensified efforts to halt Ebola’s spread across international boundaries.
“Our things are here rotting,” she said.
Following Congo’s announcement of an Ebola outbreak in eastern Ituri province on May 15, Uganda shut down its western frontier on May 28, citing mounting concerns about disease transmission. Officials permitted limited exceptions for emergency situations, including outbreak response activities, humanitarian missions, freight transport, or security operations.
However, as the epidemic in eastern Congo has seemingly accelerated beyond containment efforts, local authorities in Uganda’s border district of Kasese have imposed even stricter controls.
Business operators express irritation with the sluggish pace of truck processing. Several merchants at the Mpondwe crossing told The Associated Press that while they understand the harsh restrictions stem from Ebola concerns, they believe delaying cargo movement is unnecessarily severe.
Clearing agent Sylvia Asiimwe gestured toward a truck line extending more than a mile on Uganda’s side of the border. No fewer than seven vehicles carried fish imported from China, bound for the Congolese municipalities of Beni and Butembo.
Asiimwe emphasized that those Congolese destinations lie within North Kivu province, not Ituri where the Ebola outbreak is centered. “The fish is going to spoil,” she said. “So much money.”
The Uganda-Congo frontier spans several hundred miles and includes numerous informal crossing paths beyond official checkpoints. Commerce typically thrives along the route leading to Mpondwe, and family connections exist between the Bakonzo community on Uganda’s side and the Banande people across the border.
Mpondwe serves as Uganda’s primary checkpoint for unofficial exports, which reached an estimated value of $131 million in 2023, according to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics.
Following the recent border shutdown, some businesses closed their doors while unemployed young men sat dejectedly on stools, unable to find temporary work.
“The situation is bad,” said Ismail Mumbere, who typically sells roadside snacks on Uganda’s side. “A lot of people earn from here, in many businesses. But now the government has told us there is Ebola. Ebola has wasted our work.”
The ongoing Congo outbreak is believed to have affected more than 1,000 individuals. Confirmed case numbers remain significantly lower because many suspected patients die outside medical facilities without definitive Ebola diagnosis.
The World Health Organization declared the current outbreak a public health emergency of international concern while discouraging border shutdowns. However, the U.N. organization also recognized that adjacent countries face elevated contamination risks.
“With movement of cargo, and maybe trucks, is mobility of people, and we want to reduce that,” said Arafat Bwambale, a surveillance officer for Kasese, justifying the protective measures.
Authorities were working to prevent Congolese citizens from entering Uganda through more than two dozen footpaths along the Mpondwe frontier, he explained.
Existing vaccines and treatments for Ebola prove ineffective against patients infected with the uncommon Bundibugyo strain circulating in Congo, making this outbreak particularly concerning.
Uganda has documented 15 Ebola cases, all connected to the neighboring country’s outbreak after some Congolese individuals sought medical care in Uganda’s capital of Kampala before the epidemic was publicly known.
Health officials believe the disease had been transmitting for days or weeks before the May 15 outbreak declaration.
Uganda has experienced several Ebola outbreaks since 2000, when the illness claimed more than 200 lives.
Ebola, named after a Congo River tributary, was initially identified in 1976 during concurrent outbreaks in Congo and what is now South Sudan. Epidemics typically begin when the virus jumps from infected animals like fruit bats to humans. These species-crossing infections frequently occur when people handle and consume wild game, according to health experts.
After infecting an initial person, the virus spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids from ill or deceased patients, including sweat, blood, feces, or vomit.
Contact tracing and isolation are considered essential for controlling Ebola transmission, along with providing healthcare workers appropriate protective gear.
Bwambale, the surveillance officer, noted that the closest major hospital in Kasese maintains an isolation facility and laboratory capable of processing test samples within six hours. Recently, specimens from 41 individuals in the Kasese region tested negative for Ebola, which presents as hemorrhagic fever.
Nevertheless, officials appeared to be considering additional limitations.
An upcoming local Ebola task force meeting would likely produce “a more restricted way on how both the cargo or the trucks get into the country in a systematic way,” Bwambale said.
This prospect worries merchants who depend on the Mpondwe crossing for their livelihood.
Masika, the plantain trader, indicated she would halt new orders from Congo until the current epidemic ends. However, she faces financial ruin if her current shipment fails to reach various destinations in and around Kampala, where the fruits, whether deep-fried or boiled, are breakfast staples at local restaurants.
Masika said she cannot afford losing 50 bags, each valued at approximately $44.
“We are begging them to help us and open (the border),” she said. “We will not go back to Congo.”
