The Trump administration announced Monday that American citizens in the Democratic Republic of Congo will not be permitted to board commercial flights headed to the United States, according to a White House official.
The restriction is being implemented under a transportation law known as Title 49 and places affected U.S. citizens — including those who have recently departed Congo — on a “do-not-board” list. Before they can return home, those individuals must first spend a minimum of 21 days in a third country.
The move follows a growing Ebola crisis within Congo, where the outbreak has expanded across multiple provinces. As of late Sunday, official figures showed 1,926 confirmed cases of the disease and 702 deaths.
Ebola is a serious and often deadly viral illness that spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids from infected people or animals. Symptoms can include high fever, vomiting, and both internal and external bleeding.
A U.S. official said approximately two dozen Americans had been scheduled to fly back to the United States on Tuesday following travel to Congo. The State Department is expected to provide support to those individuals and others impacted while they wait out the required period in a third country.
Earlier Monday, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. signed a separate order citing elevated Ebola risks, pointing in part to the virus spreading to areas just hours away from Congo’s capital city of Kinshasa.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Friday that a U.S. citizen working for a humanitarian organization in Congo had tested positive for the Bundibugyo strain of the Ebola virus. One American infected in Congo was admitted to Frankfurt University Hospital in Germany early Monday, officials confirmed. A second American — identified by the Serge Christian mission organization as Dr. Peter Stafford — had also contracted Ebola and was transported to Germany for treatment, according to information the CDC released in May.
