Virunga Park Builds Five Ebola Screening Posts as Militia Attacks Kill Rangers

Emmanuel de Merode, director of Virunga National Park, said his staff began constructing five Ebola screening posts on roads leaving the affected zone in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo after militia attacks killed four rangers in the past two weeks.

NPR spoke with de Merode on June 3. He said two staff members died in an attack the morning of the interview, five others were wounded last Thursday with three in critical condition and one losing an eye, and two more were killed ten days earlier in the center of the park.

The park, which covers about 2 million acres and stretches more than 180 miles along the Uganda border, is paying $44,000 for each post. Some stations will be finished by the end of next week and the rest later this month. Each post includes at least six buildings, controlled passageways, a diagnosis room, an analysis room, reliable internet, computer equipment, a robust isolation center, and housing for 30 staff.

Two thirds of the staff at each post will provide security against militia attacks, and eight paramedics will work at every location. De Merode said the posts will screen travelers who in 2018 passed through similar checkpoints at a rate of 3,000 to 4,000 people per day.

The park has also assigned five vehicles to local health services and purchased 100 body bags within 48 hours, with another 1,000 scheduled to arrive the day after the interview.

North Kivu Province, home to 11 million people, had only two body bags available when the current outbreak began, according to de Merode. S. 4 billion in 2024 to just over $400 million in 2025.

The previous Ebola epidemic in the region lasted 18 months. De Merode said the current response is hampered by the lack of a vaccine for the circulating strain and by the sharp reduction in international support. Virunga also maintains about 200 rangers in the southern sector that holds roughly one third of the world’s mountain gorillas.