{"id":36034,"date":"2026-06-02T11:17:35","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T09:17:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&p=36034"},"modified":"2026-06-02T11:18:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T09:18:00","slug":"drc-re-opens-airport-at-centre-of-ebola-outbreak","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/drc-re-opens-airport-at-centre-of-ebola-outbreak\/","title":{"rendered":"DRC re-opens airport at centre of Ebola outbreak"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has re-opened the \u200cairport in the capital city of the province hit hardest by the ongoing Ebola outbreak, a government statement said, reversing a move that some residents said had cut them off from critical supplies.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The government in Kinshasa announced \u200blast month that it was suspending passenger flights to Bunia, the main airport in \u200bIturi, where the first Ebola cases were confirmed. Humanitarian and medical flights continued \u2060subject to approvals.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In a statement published late on Monday, DRC’s transport ministry said conditions were now \u200bin place “to allow a gradual and safe resumption of air transport activities” and that the airport \u200bwould re-open immediately.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The ministry said all passengers would have their body temperatures screened before boarding and on arrival, that passengers were required to wash their hands before boarding and that any passenger with a fever would not be allowed to board.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Africa \u200bCentres for Disease Control and Prevention announced the outbreak of the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, DRC’s \u200b17th Ebola outbreak, on May 15, and the World Health OrganiSation swiftly declared it a public health emergency \u200cof international \u2060concern.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The outbreak, already the third largest on record, persisted for weeks undetected, say health officials, who are now behind the curve and struggling to bring it under control.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The decision to re-open the airport in Bunia followed a visit from World Health Organisation Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who told reporters on \u200bMonday he saw some \u200bencouraging signs in the \u2060response, including five certified recoveries.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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But he also noted the need to ramp up testing and treatment capacity and promote trust in health workers.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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There \u200bhave been 321 confirmed Ebola cases including 48 confirmed deaths, according to the \u200blatest government \u2060figures on Monday.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Ebola has reached 15 of 36 health zones in Ituri, and cases have also been reported in North and South Kivu provinces and in neighbouring Uganda.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The International Rescue Committee warned on Monday that \u2060the \u200boutbreak was probably significantly larger and more advanced than official \u200bfigures suggested.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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–Reuters–<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":32809,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-36034","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"DRC has re-opened the \u200cairport in the capital city of the province","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/36034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/36034\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36036,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/36034\/revisions\/36036"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=36034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}