Armed violence in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is triggering fresh waves of mass displacement, severely hampering the ongoing response to the country's Ebola outbreak, the United Nations warned on Tuesday, 2 September. As of the previous Sunday, national health authorities had recorded more than 6,100 confirmed Ebola cases and nearly 2,950 deaths, figures that the UN says risk climbing further as insecurity obstructs disease surveillance.

Civilian Casualties and Displacement

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that in Ituri province, local civil society sources documented at least 37 civilians killed and more than 35 people abducted during armed attacks in the territory of Mambasa on Saturday. At least 86 civilians were killed in attacks across the same territory during the preceding month alone.

In neighbouring South Kivu province, clashes in Walungu territory have displaced at least 15,000 people since 23 August, according to OCHA's humanitarian partners. The majority of those displaced are sheltering with host families and urgently require food, shelter, and healthcare. Active fighting is also forcing displacement in parts of North Kivu province, compounding an already acute humanitarian emergency.

Why Violence Undermines the Ebola Response

The link between armed conflict and disease containment failure is well-established in public health literature, and the DRC's current crisis illustrates it starkly. Insecurity forces health workers to suspend field operations, disrupts contact tracing, and pushes infected or exposed individuals into new communities — accelerating transmission. This is not the first time the DRC has faced this double burden; the 2018–2020 Ebola outbreak in North Kivu, which killed more than 2,200 people, was similarly prolonged by ongoing armed conflict.

OCHA noted that the movement of people fleeing violence directly hampers disease surveillance, making it harder to identify new cases and contain spread before it reaches population centres or crosses international borders.

What the UN Is Doing

Despite the deteriorating security environment, the UN and its humanitarian partners said they are continuing to support government-led response efforts. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported it has conducted nearly 23 million health screenings across the DRC and neighbouring countries, aimed at monitoring population movements, detecting potential Ebola cases, and reducing the risk of cross-border transmission.

The United Nations reiterated its call on all armed parties to protect civilians and to allow safe, sustained, and unhindered humanitarian access — describing such access as critical to delivering life-saving assistance and bringing the outbreak under control.

UN Relief Chief's Warning

Tom Fletcher, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, issued a stark warning at a virtual briefing hosted by the World Health Organization (WHO). 'We cannot respond incrementally to an epidemic which is now growing exponentially,' he said.

Fletcher called for a sustained, large-scale operation to get ahead of the Ebola virus, stressing that affected communities need functioning health services, clean water, sanitation, food, protection, and livelihoods — and, above all, trust. 'Time is not on our side. We have the experience, the tools, extraordinary people risking their lives to stop this epidemic. What we need now is political will, access, and resources. We have beaten Ebola before. And we can do it again,' he said.

With case counts rising and armed violence showing no sign of abating, the UN's ability to scale up its response will depend heavily on whether warring parties heed calls for civilian protection and humanitarian access in the weeks ahead.