© Marvellous Durowaiye/Reuters
Nigeria notificó este martes su primer caso de ébola en más de una década, después de que una mujer extranjera residente en Abuya, la capital del país, diera positivo en la prueba de detección del virus, según recoge la agencia Reuters.
© Gradel Muyisa Mumbere (REUTERS)
Case in Africa’s most populous country was detected in a woman who had travelled from Uganda
Nigeria has confirmed an Ebola case in its capital, Abuja, after a woman who arrived from Uganda tested positive for the virus, the health ministry said.
The woman began showing symptoms on 7 October and was admitted to a hospital in Abuja four days later, where she was later diagnosed with Ebola. It is unclear when she arrived in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country.
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© Photograph: Sebastien Kitsa Musayi/AP
© Photograph: Sebastien Kitsa Musayi/AP
© Photograph: Sebastien Kitsa Musayi/AP
Indonesia, Brazil and the Democratic Republic of Congo together hold more than half of the world’s tropical rainforests. In 2022, when Indonesia hosted the G20 summit in Bali, the three countries pledged to cooperate on how to pay to protect those forests. The promise was one of South-South cooperation: developing countries working together rather than […]
The post Indonesia primed to lead a Global South forest protection bloc appeared first on Asia Times.
Belgian police have conducted searches at several properties in Brussels and its surrounding areas as part of an investigation into allegations that money diverted from the Democratic Republic of Congo’s mining sector was laundered through Belgium.
The searches, carried out on 15th October, reportedly involved homes associated with relatives and individuals close to Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi. Belgian prosecutors confirmed that searches had taken place but did not publicly identify those concerned, while the Congolese presidency declined to comment.
The investigation follows a complaint lodged in Belgium in 2025 by civil society organisations from Katanga, the mineral-rich region of south-eastern Congo. Their lawyers, Bernard Maingain and Hervé Diakese, allege that mining revenues which should have benefited Congolese communities were instead diverted and channelled through financial arrangements involving individuals with connections to Belgium.
The allegations have not been established in court. The searches form part of an investigation, and their execution does not establish criminal responsibility on the part of the individuals or organisations whose premises were examined.
Congo is one of the world’s most important suppliers of copper and cobalt, minerals essential to electric vehicles, batteries, electronics and other advanced industrial products. Its mineral resources also occupy an increasingly important position in the European Union’s effort to diversify strategic supply chains.
Yet the financial arrangements surrounding mineral extraction have repeatedly generated controversy over public accountability, the distribution of revenues and the relationship between political authorities and commercial interests.
The Belgian inquiry concerns an especially sensitive question: whether funds originating from Congo’s mining economy were transferred into the European financial system under circumstances that could constitute money laundering.
According to the details of the investigation published on Thursday, the original complainants maintain that money linked to mining operations was diverted from its intended beneficiaries and used to benefit people connected to the Congolese leadership.
The proceedings are particularly significant because Belgian courts can investigate alleged laundering through Belgian financial structures even when the suspected underlying misconduct occurred abroad, subject to the applicable jurisdictional requirements.
Investigators will need to establish the origin of the funds, the route they allegedly followed and whether those involved knew or should have known that the money represented proceeds of criminal activity.
The investigation also has a diplomatic dimension. Belgium ruled Congo until independence in 1960, and the countries retain extensive commercial, political and personal connections.
Brussels remains an important centre for Congolese political and business networks, making Belgium a potentially relevant jurisdiction when investigators examine suspected financial movements connected to the country.
At European level, the inquiry comes as the EU attempts to strengthen relationships with mineral-producing countries while reducing its dependence on concentrated supply chains.
The European Commission’s cooperation programme with the Democratic Republic of Congo specifically identifies responsible sourcing, transparency, due diligence and action against illegal trafficking in raw materials as areas for cooperation.
These commitments have practical consequences for European businesses seeking greater access to copper and cobalt. Investment and supply arrangements depend not only on access to mineral deposits but also on the reliability of commercial records, ownership structures and the institutions responsible for supervising mining revenues.
A money-laundering investigation involving politically connected individuals therefore raises questions extending beyond Congo’s internal affairs.
Belgium has recently joined other EU member states in adopting additional measures intended to recover criminal assets and strengthen cross-border cooperation against illicit financial activity.
As EU Today reported on 14th October, European governments have endorsed new international arrangements designed to improve their ability to trace and recover assets associated with serious crime.
The Congo investigation concerns an existing criminal inquiry rather than the application of those newly agreed arrangements. Nevertheless, both developments illustrate the importance of financial intelligence, access to ownership records and cooperation between prosecutors when suspected proceeds move across jurisdictions.
For investigators, the central task will be tracing the alleged flow of money and determining whether financial transactions in Belgium conceal proceeds unlawfully obtained elsewhere.
For Congo, the proceedings arrive during a period of serious domestic instability, including renewed armed confrontation in the east of the country and growing political uncertainty surrounding its leadership.
Former president Joseph Kabila’s involvement in a new opposition alliance has intensified that confrontation, complicating Tshisekedi’s political position as his administration faces continuing security and economic pressures.
The Belgian authorities have not announced any findings establishing that President Tshisekedi personally participated in wrongdoing. The next important developments will be whether investigators identify specific transactions, bring charges or expand the inquiry to additional individuals or corporate structures.
Kenya confirmed its first imported case: a Kenyan citizen who traveled from DR Congo through Ugandan territory before dying in Nairobi. On Wednesday, Kenya’s Health Ministry confirmed a second case after relatives of the first patient tested positive while in quarantine.
The second case also emerged from within the quarantined group, which means the patient was being monitored before symptoms appeared.
RELATED: W.H.O. Warns of Ebola Spread to New Territories in DR Congo
The Ministry detailed that the second patient, a 39-year-old man, is a relative of Kenya’s first Ebola case and developed symptoms on Tuesday. He was among the people placed in quarantine after the first case was identified. The agency said early detection of the infection “improves his chances of recovery” and that the two cases are linked.
.@MOH_Kenya identified a second case of #Ebola caused by Bundibugyo virus, a close contact of the first patient, who has already been in quarantine. This shows that surveillance and contact tracing efforts are working. He has been receiving supportive clinical care since the…
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) October 14, 2026
The first patient, a 40-year-old Kenyan, had been living in Congo, where he fell ill and received treatment at two health centers, according to the ministry. He traveled through three Ebola-affected provinces before leaving the country and arriving in neighboring Uganda on October 1. He then flew to Kenya, where a relative picked him up at the airport and drove him to a hospital. He began receiving treatment and tested positive for Ebola on October 5. He died the same day.
Since then, the Ministry has identified 128 contacts of the first patient. Of these, 113 were located and 108 were placed in quarantine in Kenya, while fifteen contacts have not yet been located. Five of the contacts are abroad, and the health authorities of those countries have been notified, the Ministry said. In this sense, the Ministry stressed that “early” detection increases the chances of recovery and limits the risk of transmission. It said there has been no large-scale spread of the virus in the country.
Kenya has strengthened controls at border crossings and airports since detecting its first case, and has urged the public to report suspected infections through an emergency telephone line, according to earlier reports on the ministry’s response.
Health authorities in the region, including the World Health Organization, have warned of a continuing risk of cross-border spread because of the constant movement of people. Uganda, which reported about 20 cases earlier this year, declared itself free of the disease in August. Whether more of the quarantined contacts test positive in the coming days will determine how contained the situation is in Kenya.
The cases come as the outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, caused by the Bundibugyo strain, has surpassed 9,000 confirmed cases, according to Congolese health authorities. The World Health Organization has warned of a continuing risk of cross-border spread because of constant movement of people in the region.
The National Institute of Public Health of the Democratic Republic of Congo confirmed in its most recent epidemiological report that “the total number of cases of Ebola infection has exceeded the 9,000-case barrier.” The official data updated to this October 14 reveal that “the number of positive cases totaled 9,144 registered and confirmed”, while “cumulative deaths rose to 4,410 people due to the disease.”
The outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo strain of the virus and began to spread rapidly after it was officially declared in May. Local medical teams and health agencies are struggling to curb community transmission across multiple critical hotspots in the country, according to the report.
Health experts say the situation is made harder by the absence of approved vaccines and specific drug treatments for this variant, which limits clinical options in affected health centers.
Regional health authorities warned that the impact of the outbreak has crossed national borders, creating what they called a regional crisis in Africa. They cautioned that, if not contained, the outbreak could spread beyond its current boundaries. The World Health Organization (W.H.O.) has warned of an ongoing risk of cross-border spread because of constant movement of people in the region.
Uganda reported about 20 cases and two deaths earlier this year, but its health authorities declared the country free of the disease in August.
Globally, the epidemic is the second-largest on record, behind only the 2014-2016 West Africa outbreak, which according to W.H.O. statistics affected more than 28,600 people and killed more than 11,000 in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Recent reports from specialized agencies continue to add dozens of new infections each week in the hardest-hit provinces.
Experts note that containing outbreaks of this kind has historically required large financial resources, specialized logistics and close cooperation between affected governments. Without effective vaccines for this strain, and with high population mobility, mitigation efforts remain difficult.
© WHO HANDOUT/EPA
In less than five months, the fastest-spreading Ebola outbreak in world history has killed at least 4,205 people in the conflict-ridden eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as of October 7.
It is the deadliest outbreak in the DRC since the disease was first discovered in the country in 1976, killing nearly one in two of the 8,728 people confirmed to be infected.
With treatment still in experimental stages, there is no specifically approved treatment for the particular Bundibugyo strain of the Ebola virus that caused this outbreak, declared on May 15.
However, the virus had been circulating in communities in Ituri province since mid-February, three months before the outbreak was identified and officially declared.
When the health response started, already late, it was severely underfunded, as the UK, France and Germany have also followed in the footsteps of the US to slash humanitarian aid and increase military spending.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in late September that the Humanitarian Response Plan had only half the funding needed to counter the outbreak.
Contact tracing is well below the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the WHO-recommended 95% to effectively break transmission. Only now in October, it has been built up to 80.4%, which still means that almost 20% of the people at risk of exposure to the virus due to contact with confirmed cases are off the radar of the health authorities, and could potentially be transmitting the disease further.
Lack of funds has meant that the understaffed and overworked frontline health workers – scores of whom have died in the line of duty – have been repeatedly forced to go on strike to protest unpaid wages. Their efforts are further impeded by the poor transport infrastructure and lack of healthcare facilities in the remote eastern region where the disease is spreading.
Armed conflict displacing millions on this mineral-rich land is another major hurdle in the way of effective health response. In Ituri, the epicenter of the outbreak, a key Ebola transit center in the fighting-affected Kigonze camp burnt down on September 29.
The camp, which had housed 19,000 Internally Displaced People (IDPs) fleeing violence, was reportedly infiltrated by the Convention for the Popular Revolution (CRP).
This coalition of armed militias, formed in March 2025 at a hotel in Uganda’s capital, Kampala, is led by Thomas Lubanga, a former warlord, convicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) of war crimes, released from prison in 2020 after serving 14 years. He resides in Uganda, where he is also known to have recruited fighters along ethnic lines.
In a 2022 judgment, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Uganda to pay DRC USD 325 million in reparations. This included USD 225 million for killings, rapes, child soldier recruitment, and displacement, USD 40 million for damage to property, and USD 60 million for plundering its gold, diamonds, and timber as an “occupying power” in Ituri from 1998 to 2003.
The nature of the occupation has since evolved. Under a bilateral agreement with the DRC, Uganda had deployed 2,000 troops to the country to jointly fight an Islamic State-affiliated group. However, Uganda deployed an additional 4,000 troops without the DRC’s consent in early 2025, around the time as the CRP’s formation in Kampala.
Searching for CRP militants and weapons, soldiers and police entered the camp on September 20. When they came under fire, clashes erupted between the security forces and the militants. Thousands of IDPs fled again as gunfire continued rattling around the camp for days. Deaths, injuries, and arrests were reported.
Amid this violence, on September 29, fire engulfed the camp’s Ebola transit center. It is a facility for the isolation and care of suspected cases, until the results of the lab tests on their blood samples. If confirmed as positive, they are then transported to an Ebola treatment center.
“It’s been a huge struggle to create Ebola transit centers [and] Ebola treatment centers; it’s required money, bringing in staff and it’s been a struggle all across the east. So, when we lose a center, that means we lose capacity, we lose investment and we have to start again,” said Julien Harneis, UN’s senior Ebola response official in the DRC.
“Eastern DRC now faces a catastrophic collision of disease and conflict, with the Ebola outbreak in Ituri province outpacing the response,” the WHO’s director general, Tedros Ghebreyesus, had warned in May.
The outbreak has since reached seven of DRC’s 26 provinces, predominantly in the east. About three-quarters of the confirmed cases remain concentrated in Ituri. However, its neighboring province, North Kivu, which has another 20% of confirmed cases, is emerging as the new hotspot.
Large areas of this province are occupied by Rwandan troops and its proxy militias, the M23, which captured its capital, Goma, in January 2025, and went on to expand territorial control into South Kivu province.
Without humanitarian access to these occupied areas, the government cannot mount a health response, Communications Minister Patrick Katembwe said in late May, second week after the outbreak was declared. He called for the “withdrawal of foreign forces and the removal of their auxiliaries.”
Instead, the M23’s parallel administration launched a separate health response in the areas under its control, independently of the DRC government, with which cooperation was limited to data sharing and lab testing. This severely hampered contact tracing, especially because people regularly travel between the M23-held areas and government-controlled territory.
The parallel M23 administration has also meant additional delays in diagnosis. With bed capacity in Ebola treatment centers stretched taut in North Kivu, medics in this province are forced to refer infected patients to general health facilities, where a third of all confirmed cases are being treated, posing further risk of transmission into the wider community.
The spread has rapidly increased since September in this province, which now accounts for nearly 40% of all new confirmed cases, up from 24% in August-end, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said on October 5.
“It is like fighting a megafire,” said Stéphanie Hoffmann, MSF coordinator of the treatment center in Butembo, a major commercial city in the province. “Multiple outbreaks are developing at the same time, with varying intensity and in different locations. As long as new hotspots continue to emerge while the virus spreads across northern North Kivu, containing the epidemic will remain extremely difficult.”
© STRINGER/EPA
© STRINGER/EPA
Les centaines de textes, dessins et gravures qui illustrent cet ouvrage lèvent le voile sur un pan méconnu de l'histoire de l'Afrique précoloniale. En 1645, des capucins franciscains abordent l'embouchure du fleuve Congo, afin d'évangéliser les populations du royaume du Kongo et de l'Angola. Ils multiplient les écrits, riches de très nombreuses images destinées à la hiérarchie papale et à l'instruction des futurs frères. Cécile Fromont, professeure d'histoire de l'art et d'architecture à Harvard, interroge ce « corpus visuel capucin » en le reliant aux contextes culturel, social et politique des peuples concernés. Elle note que l'enjeu central des capucins consistait à « extirper de cette région ce qu'ils jugeaient être de l'idolâtrie ». Certaines aquarelles montrent des scènes pacifiques et d'autres d'une extrême violence. L'historienne insiste sur le « processus de création transculturelle » qui fut mis en œuvre, les missionnaires ayant développé des échanges avec les érudits africains.
CNRS Éditions, Paris, 2026, 254 pages, 39 euros.
Protests rocked the Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday, September 15, as opposition supporters took to the streets in Kinshasa and several other cities to oppose proposed constitutional changes that they say could allow President Félix Tshisekedi to seek a third term.
The demonstrations were called by the opposition coalition C64 (Coalition Article 64), which has campaigned against changes to the Constitution and what it considers an attempt to remove the existing two-term presidential limit.
The demonstrations were also reported in several cities. In Kinshasa, hundreds of protesters gathered around the Limete area before the march was disrupted by clashes involving demonstrators and people identified as members of the Force du Progrès, a group affiliated with Tshisekedi’s ruling UDPS party. Police used tear gas and warning shots to disperse the crowd. At least 10 people were arrested in Kinshasa.
Martin Fayulu, leader of the Engagement for Citizenship and Development (ECiDé) and a leading C64 figure, accused authorities of deliberately allowing pro-government militants to attack the opposition march.
In a post following the confrontation, Fayulu said the C64 had agreed on its route with Kinshasa’s city authorities before the march. He alleged that protesters were then confronted in Limete by armed members of the Force du Progrès while police used tear gas against the marchers.
Fayulu wrote that the C64 had been “the victim of an ambush” and accused the authorities of using a political militia alongside security forces. He called on Kinshasa’s city authorities and the national government to explain what happened.
The confrontation prevented the C64 march from reaching its planned destination and from delivering its memorandum to the authorities at the People’s Palace.
Tuesday’s demonstrations were the latest escalation in an opposition campaign that has been building since June, when there were protests after Congo’s parliament approved legislation allowing constitutional amendments to be submitted to a referendum.
The National Assembly and Senate have both backed the referendum legislation. Critics argue that the process could eventually open the way for amendments to the presidential term-limit provisions.
Tshisekedi was first elected president in 2018 and re-elected in 2023. Under the current Constitution, the president serves a maximum of two five-year terms. His current term runs until 2028.
The proposed constitutional changes have therefore become a major point of confrontation between the government and opposition. The C64 says it is defending the existing constitutional order and has rejected any change that could enable Tshisekedi to seek another term.
The protests and the crisis is happening as the government faces other major challenges, including conflict in eastern Congo and an Ebola outbreak.
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