WHO Declares Uganda Ebola-Free as Crisis Deepens Across the Border in DRC
The World Health Organization declared Uganda free of Ebola on August 26, 2026, at a joint news conference with Uganda's Ministry of Health in Kampala. The declaration came after the country completed a mandatory 42-day surveillance period with no new cases recorded. The outbreak had been relatively small: 20 confirmed infections and two deaths, with the last confirmed case logged on June 21. Al Jazeera
Uganda's own Health Ministry had actually declared the outbreak over a month earlier, on July 28, 2026, after the last Ebola patient was discharged from Mulago National Referral Isolation Centre on July 16. The gap between Uganda's domestic announcement and the WHO's international clearance comes down to protocol. The WHO requires two full incubation cycles — 42 days — to pass after the last confirmed case before issuing an official all-clear. An incubation cycle is the window of time during which an infected person could develop symptoms; waiting through two of them gives confidence that the virus is no longer circulating undetected. Diana Atwine, permanent secretary for Uganda's Health Ministry, said the WHO "had to wait because that was the process and guideline," while Uganda already knew it was free from Ebola. Atwine used the occasion to call on countries that had imposed travel restrictions on Uganda during the outbreak to lift them.
The outbreak in Uganda was first declared on May 15, 2026, after two imported Ebola cases were confirmed on May 15 and 16, linked largely to cross-border transmission from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The WHO Director-General assessed the outbreak's status on May 16, and the DRC's outbreak, caused by the Bundibugyo virus species, was formally declared on May 17. As of June 15, Uganda had reported 19 confirmed cases and one probable case, all connected to the Congolese epidemic. WHO AFRO
The DRC remains the epicentre of the regional crisis. Confirmed cases there reached 5,656 as of August 25, 2026, an increase of 72 from the previous day's report, with 2,715 deaths recorded. Ituri province in the northeast of the DRC is the outbreak's centre, with more than 4,700 people infected. Uganda shares an 877-kilometre (500-mile) border with the northeast of the DRC, making cross-border transmission a persistent structural risk. Al Jazeera
A WHO disease outbreak news item (2026-DON614) reported 3,605 confirmed Bundibugyo virus cases and 1,587 deaths across the region as of July 30, 2026. By August 12, cumulative confirmed cases had risen to 4,686, including 20 in Uganda and one exported case in France, with 2,186 deaths in total. The DRC alone accounted for 4,665 of those cases. The most recent data available, as of August 25, shows the trajectory continuing upward. WHO
With Uganda cleared, the bilateral focus has shifted to cross-border containment. On August 25, Ugandan and Congolese officials met in Kampala to review a memorandum of understanding on cross-border health security. Uganda announced it would open two additional Ebola treatment centres in the DRC, bringing its total there to four. The WHO's Uganda representative, Kasonde Mwinga, confirmed that Uganda is already supporting treatment and laboratory capacity at two sites across the border in Aru and Kasenyi, both in Ituri province.
Kenneth Akiiri, undersecretary for Uganda's Health Ministry, called for the WHO and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention to mobilise further resources for the regional response. Adelard Lufungula, head of the DRC delegation, urged urgent action. "We want to fight Ebola like a war," he said.
The broader context here is the sharp contrast between Uganda's contained, relatively small outbreak and the accelerating epidemic across the border. Uganda recorded 20 cases and two deaths; the DRC has recorded over 5,600 cases and 2,715 deaths, with Ituri province alone accounting for more than 4,700 infections. The Bundibugyo virus species driving this outbreak is less studied than the Zaire ebolavirus that dominated the 2014-2016 West African epidemic, which means vaccine and therapeutic options are more limited, though the facts available do not specify the current status of clinical countermeasures for this strain.
The cross-border architecture now taking shape, with Ugandan treatment centres inside DRC territory and a bilateral MOU under active review, suggests that Kampala views the Congolese epidemic as a direct national security threat rather than a neighbouring problem. That framing is consistent with the 877-kilometre shared border and the confirmed cross-border transmission that triggered Uganda's outbreak in the first place. Whether the WHO and Africa CDC will mobilise the resources Akiiri is requesting, and whether they will arrive fast enough to bend the DRC's case curve, is the central open question.
For now, the two countries are operating on parallel tracks. Uganda has its international clearance and is pivoting outward. The DRC is still counting cases by the dozen each day.
