M23 Rebels Impose Ebola Movement Restrictions as DRC Conflict Complicates Outbreak Response

M23 Rebels Impose Ebola Movement Restrictions as DRC Conflict Complicates Outbreak Response

The AFC/M23 rebel alliance in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has announced a one-month suspension of shared taxis and passenger boats on key routes linking rebel-held areas to government-controlled zones, following the detection of two Ebola cases in travelers from government territory. The restrictions, set to take effect Saturday, reflect the growing challenge of containing what health officials describe as the fastest-spreading Ebola outbreak on record in a region already devastated by armed conflict, mass displacement, and acute hunger. The Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, which has no approved vaccine or specific treatment, has now infected over 5,000 people in Congo, according to government data released this week.

Under the new measures announced Wednesday by rebel authorities, shared taxis operating on the Goma-Kirumba road will be suspended for one month, and passenger pirogue boats on certain routes across Lake Edward will also be halted. However, taxi-buses will continue operating subject to health and safety controls, and goods trucks will remain permitted to transport cargo. The decision came after two travelers from Lubero, a government-held town, tested positive for Ebola upon arriving in a village under M23 control, according to a member of the rebel authorities’ response team.

The Ebola outbreak, declared on May 15, has unfolded in one of the world’s most volatile regions. The Bundibugyo virus, first identified in Uganda in 2007, has an estimated fatality rate of 30% to 50%. By June, confirmed cases had reached 1,003 in Congo and 19 in neighboring Uganda. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has warned that eastern DRC faces a “catastrophic collision of disease and conflict,” with insecurity, attacks on health facilities, and population movements making it “nearly impossible” to trace contacts and isolate cases. “We cannot build community trust or isolate the sick while bombs are falling,” Tedros said.

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Health experts identify three major obstacles to controlling the outbreak in eastern DRC. First, neighboring countries have pursued unilateral responses, including border and airport closures, which go against WHO recommendations and encourage informal crossings that spread the virus. Cross-border communities link the DRC to Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi through a web of formal and informal crossing points, making monitoring and regulating movement extremely difficult. Second, misinformation and beliefs that Ebola was introduced for financial gain have fueled attacks on health facilities and resistance to response teams, with isolation wards burned and medical workers violently attacked in some cases. This distrust is rooted in a history of violence and government absence; a priest in Ituri told AFP that “there is no trust between the people and the army,” as the government is largely absent from rural areas. In 2025 alone, at least 309 incidents of violence against or obstruction of health care were documented in eastern DRC. Third, active fighting involving the Congolese army, M23, and various militias has created multiple frontlines and areas of contested control, severely constraining humanitarian access as armed actors restrict the movement of civilians and aid workers. The humanitarian crisis compounds the health emergency, with nearly 10 million people across Ituri, North Kivu, South Kivu, and Tanganyika facing acute hunger, and people weakened by hunger are far more vulnerable to infections.

The M23 has used the Ebola outbreak to demonstrate its capacity to govern in the large territories it controls, including the cities of Goma and Bukavu. The group has set up an Ebola task force, established treatment centers, and produced public awareness campaigns. The rebels declared their territory Ebola-free in late June after a 21-day monitoring period without new cases, having recorded only four cases in rebel-held areas—one in Goma and three near Bukavu—which analysts say provided a limited test of their capabilities. “AFC/M23 is keen to demonstrate its capacity to function as a state and manage a public health crisis better than the Congolese government,” said Reagan Miviri of the Kinshasa-based Ebuteli research institute. “But with only four cases recorded, it has been a limited test so far.” The rebels’ response has been coordinated through health administrations operating separately from the central government, with support from Rwanda, which has supplied medicine, specialists, and materials, though the United Nations and Western governments accuse Rwanda of backing the M23, a claim Kigali denies.

For civilians caught in the crossfire, the crisis has created a nightmare of overlapping threats. More than 70,000 people now live virtually under siege in the Plaine Savo displacement camp in Ituri, where Doctors Without Borders treats around 60 cases of sexual violence each week. Women like Antoinette, a mother of eight, told AFP she no longer dares to collect water or firewood outside the camp, fearing rape or death from militiamen or Congolese soldiers. Health services are stretched to breaking point; “We don’t have an ambulance, we don’t have transport, not even a bike,” said Aime Lojunga, a doctor whose clinic was displaced with the population to Plaine Savo.

WHO has appealed for an immediate ceasefire to allow humanitarian and medical teams safe access to affected communities. “Stopping this Ebola transmission depends entirely on humanitarian access,” Tedros said. The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has declared the outbreak an African public health emergency, and WHO has designated it a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. Congolese health officials have limited visibility into what is happening in rebel territory beyond basic infection numbers that cannot be independently verified. Dieudonné Kazadi, director of Congo’s National Institute of Public Health, told The New York Times, “I can’t give you the situation in the territories occupied by M23 because I don’t have access.”

M23 Rebels Impose Ebola Movement Restrictions as DRC Conflict Complicates Outbreak Response