- Статьи
- World
- Between the plague and the war: Russia will help the Republic of Congo to stop the spread of Ebola
Between the plague and the war: Russia will help the Republic of Congo to stop the spread of Ebola
Russian virologists and epidemiologists will work in Brazzaville from June 5 to 11, Charge d'affaires of the Russian Federation in the Republic of the Congo Sofya Sitnikova told Izvestia. According to her, test systems for the diagnosis of the Ebola virus will also be delivered to the Congolese. The risk of fever spreading remains due to the proximity of the capitals of the two Congo — Kinshasa and Brazzaville. The number of people infected and dead from Ebola is growing rapidly. The situation is complicated by the fact that there are no vaccines or specific treatments for the Bundibugio strain. And in the outbreak center, DR Congo, military clashes continue. And experts believe that the conflict will not end in the near future.
Russia will help doctors in the Republic of Congo
The spread of the Ebola virus continues to gain momentum. According to the latest data, the number of laboratory—confirmed cases of infection in Africa has increased to at least 378: 363 people fell ill in DR Congo, 15 in Uganda. 63 people died due to the disease. And this is just official data. In these circumstances, the neighboring Republic of the Congo is trying to prevent the infection from entering the country. To do this, her government turned to Russia for support, Sofia Sitnikova, Charge d'affaires of the Russian Federation in the Republic of the Congo, told Izvestia.
—From June 5 to 11, representatives of the Virom Federal Research Institute of Viral Infections and the Central Research Institute of Epidemiology of Rospotrebnadzor will work in Brazzaville, who will deliver the necessary test systems for the diagnosis of the Ebola virus and other supplies to the Congolese," the diplomat noted. — During the trip, it is also planned to train local specialists, including on the basis of a complex of a mobile laboratory of domestic production transferred in February 2025.
The decision to send experts from the Russian Federation to the republic was made on May 27, when consultations between the Congolese Ministry of Health and the Russian Rospotrebnadzor took place via videoconference, Sitnikova said.
"At the moment, no cases of infection have been registered in the country, however, despite the remoteness of the outbreak (about 3,000 km), this risk remains due to the geographical proximity of the capitals of the two Congo Kinshasa and Brazzaville," the diplomat added.
Kinshasa
Kinshasa and Brazzaville are the closest capitals in the world, separated only by the Congo River. Dozens of ferries and hundreds of private wooden boats run between the cities. Merchants, workers, and relatives cross the river all the time. The incubation period of the virus is 21 days. If an infected person takes a ferry while he has no symptoms, the virus will enter the republic in 20-30 minutes.
Even with the high risk of spreading, ferry and boat services were not stopped. The complete closure of this transport artery would lead to an economic crisis in both capitals, as they are critically dependent on mutual trade. Instead, the authorities of the Republic of the Congo followed the path of enhanced sanitary control.
"At border control points, the temperature of citizens arriving in the country is measured, antiseptic products are offered," Sitnikova stressed. — Nevertheless, there is still no talk about the threat of termination of commercial flights and the introduction of other radical quarantine solutions.
In the ports of Brazzaville, all passengers disembarking from ferries or boats are checked with contactless thermometers. They are required to fill out questionnaires indicating the places they have visited in the DRC in 21 days. In addition, mobile laboratories have been deployed using rapid test systems promptly provided by Rospotrebnadzor. At the slightest suspicion, a person is isolated directly at the port until the results of PCR are obtained.
But even such measures do not provide an absolute guarantee. Passengers may intentionally take strong antipyretics before boarding the ferry in order to deceive thermal imagers at the border. In addition, it is physically impossible to completely block every meter by patrol forces. Local residents, fleeing from inspections or without documents, continue to use illegal night traffic.
How the war in the DRC affects the spread of Ebola
The rapid spread of Ebola in DR Congo in 2026 is due to a catastrophic coincidence of medical and military factors. First of all, there is no approved vaccine or medicine against the Bundibugio strain. Doctors have to use only general supportive therapy.
In addition, fighting involving a number of groups is taking place in the outbreak's outbreak center, the Ituri region in the northeast of DR Congo. Due to the conflict, doctors are physically unable to safely reach many settlements to isolate patients and track contacts.
"The conflict complicates the fight against Ebola, as it is unsafe for doctors to deploy the infrastructure to counter the virus," Konstantin Pantserev, a professor at St. Petersburg State University and an expert at the Valdai Discussion club, told Izvestia.
For example, at the end of May, the International Medical Corps reported a series of raids on newly deployed isolation and treatment centers in Ituri province. There were no casualties among the doctors, but this led to the escape of deadly patients. The attacks were caused not so much by the terror of the militants as by the aggression of local residents and radicals, angered by strict quarantine rules.
On May 21, local residents staged mass protests when doctors refused to give the young man's body to relatives for burial. The angry crowd broke through the cordons. Police fired tear gas, but the protesters managed to set fire to two intensive care tents. On May 23, a group of local radicals burned down an insulation tent. As a result of the raid, 18 suspected Ebola patients escaped and fled among the population. The center was closed due to death threats.
During this week, terrorists raided villages in eastern DRC. More than 30 people died. The head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Ghebreyesus, stressed that because of this massacre, contact tracking of Ebola-infected people in the region has dropped below 45%, as doctors are afraid to travel to the jungle.
The main reason for the protracted conflict was the struggle for huge mineral reserves, superimposed on ethnic differences. The war in the eastern provinces has not stopped for three decades. The country is rich in cobalt, gold and diamonds. Illegal mining and smuggling of these resources bring in hundreds of millions of dollars.
Rebel groups are fighting with indigenous Congolese tribes for the right to own strategic territories. The root causes of the conflict arose back in 1994, when Hutu radicals who organized ethnic cleansing in Rwanda fled to DR Congo. Having settled in the forests of the country, they created their own movement to take power in Rwanda. For 30 years, they have used the territory of the DRC as a springboard for attacks. In response, Rwanda has adopted a proxy war strategy. Rebel groups began to be formed on the territory of the DRC, consisting of local Congolese tribes, who were supplied with money, weapons and intelligence.
Panzerev believes that there are no prerequisites for ending the conflict in the foreseeable future. The professor admitted that the regular troops of the DRC are poorly funded, the generals may cooperate with local gangs, sell them weapons or participate in gold smuggling, so the military leadership has no incentive to end the war.
Back in 2025, the DRC government and the M23 rebel group signed a peace agreement, and in April 2026, an interim protocol on humanitarian access, which was supposed to allow doctors to treat patients. But it didn't help. There are over 100 groups operating in the DRC. In addition, the local population will not trust white doctors. As a result, the virus continues to spread. This means that the risk of new Ebola outbreaks will persist not only for the DRC, but also for neighboring countries, and the whole of Central Africa will live in a state of increased sanitary threat and depend on external assistance for a long time to come.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
