Uganda Closes Congo Border After Confirming 15 Imported Ebola Cases as Outbreak Spreads in Ituri

Uganda closed its western border with Congo on May 28 after Congo declared an Ebola outbreak in eastern Ituri province on May 15. The closure followed reports that the disease had been spreading for days or weeks before the declaration. Exceptions remain only for emergency, humanitarian, cargo, or security movements.

Traders at the Mpondwe border post described immediate losses. Leah Masika watched her consignment of plantain begin to leak water on June 4 and said the cargo would spoil within hours. “Our things are here rotting,” she said.

She added that she could not accept the loss of 50 bags, each worth roughly $44. Sylvia Asiimwe, a clearing agent at Mpondwe, pointed to a queue of trucks stretching over a mile on the Ugandan side. At least seven carried fish imported from China and bound for Beni and Butembo in North Kivu province.

“The fish is going to spoil,” she said. ” Ismail Mumbere, a roadside-snack vendor on the Ugandan side, said the restrictions had ended daily earnings for many. “The situation is bad,” he said. “A lot of people earn from here, in many businesses.

But now the government has told us there is Ebola. ” Mpondwe handles Uganda’s largest volume of informal exports, valued at an estimated $131 million in 2023 according to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics. Shops along the route have closed, and young men who once found casual work now sit idle.

The current outbreak in Congo is suspected to have infected more than 1,000 people. Confirmed cases remain lower because many suspected victims die outside hospitals without laboratory testing. All available vaccines and treatments are ineffective against the Bundibugyo strain circulating there.