DR Congo reopens airport at centre of Ebola outbreak

Health workers stand in a new Ebola treatment center during a visit of Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), in Bunia, in the northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, on May 31, 2026. [AFP]

The main airport in Ituri, the DR Congo province at the epicentre of an Ebola outbreak, reopened on Tuesday after a 10-day closure for safety reasons, the government said.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is battling a major epidemic of the highly contagious haemorrhagic fever that is suspected to have killed at least 246 people in the country and neighbouring Uganda, according to the African Union's health agency, Africa CDC.

On May 23, the authorities suspended all commercial flights to and from the airport in Bunia, the capital of Ituri in the conflict-plagued eastern DRC, allowing only medical and humanitarian planes in.

Health Minister Samuel Roger Kamba said the authorities needed to put health measures in place to protect travellers.

On Tuesday, the transport ministry said the authorities had assessed how the outbreak was being monitored and concluded "conditions are now in place for a gradual and safe resumption of flights".