There is no approved vaccine for the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, the virus behind the 2026 Ebola outbreak in the DRC. So Environmental Defenders and its partners have bet on radio, posters in Alur, and 623 trained community health workers. Nearly four months on, the Nyarambe and Angumu health zones have yet to record a confirmed case.
At dusk on the fishing beaches of Mahagi Port, health officials describe a scene they had never seen before. Residents gather with printed sheets in hand, reading aloud to one another in Alur. The sheets explain fever, vomiting, safe burial, and where to go if someone falls sick. They are Ebola prevention posters, the first many people in Mahagi have seen in their own language.
The posters are part of a wider initiative that teaches people about symptoms, safe burials, and access to treatment. Its aim is to build trust as the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) fights the 2026 Ebola outbreak, its deadliest to date.
The Ebola outbreak DRC 2026 in numbers
The DRC is now four months into its 17th and deadliest Ebola outbreak. The Ministry of Public Health declared the outbreak on May 15, 2026, after laboratories confirmed the Bundibugyo strain in Mongbwalu, a gold mining town in Djugu territory.
As of August 30, the DRC had registered 6,100 confirmed Ebola cases, including 2,950 deaths, a case fatality rate of 48.4 percent. Cases have appeared in Ituri, North Kivu, South Kivu, Tshopo, Haut-Uélé, and Bas-Uélé provinces. Ituri alone accounted for 5,016 cases and 2,274 deaths, with 28 of its 36 health zones affected.
By September 2, the Associated Press reported more than 6,180 cases and 3,000 deaths. The World Health Organization warned that the outbreak could exceed the West African epidemic of 2014 to 2016.
Unlike the Zaire strain that struck the region between 2018 and 2020, the Bundibugyo virus has no licensed vaccine and no approved treatment. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) runs six treatment centers in the affected provinces. It describes the response as a return to fundamentals: early isolation, supportive care, safe burials, and community trust.
Building trust during the 2026 Ebola outbreak in the DRC
Trust is in short supply. On August 30 alone, the government reported 20 refusals of isolation in Ituri and nine bodies families would not allow to be tested. Only one of the province’s eleven strategic control points was running without interruption. In Mahagi Territory, on the northeastern edge of the epidemic, this reality has shaped a response built on information rather than injections.
Since the first week of the outbreak, Environmental Defenders has worked with the Nyarambe and Angumu health zones on a behavior change communication program. Both are among the eight zones in Ituri yet to record a single Ebola case.
Between May 16 and 20, Environmental Defenders produced twelve radio spots in Alur and French with the Nyarambe health zone’s technical team. It then built them into every program on its community radio station. On May 20, the station also launched a weekly health magazine in which doctors answer listeners’ questions.
Posters in Alur reach the lakeshore
The printed campaign followed on June 12. Teams distributed more than 16,000 posters in the lakeshore health areas of Mahagi Port État, Mahagi Port CECA, and Agudi Usoke. They also briefed 88 community health workers, known as relais communautaires. These volunteers are chosen by their own villages and form the country’s largest trusted community health network.
The location was deliberate. The lakeshore receives a steady flow of fish traders from Tchomia and Kasenyi, in Djugu and Irumu territories, both of which already had confirmed cases.
“This is a first for our health zone. Usually the government sends us materials in Lingala or Kikongo, languages that are not spoken here, or in French, which remains inaccessible to the illiterate population.” — Primary Health Care Supervisor, Nyarambe Health Zone
The campaign then moved south. From July 6 to 8, teams covered ten health areas of Angumu health zone, briefing 245 community health workers and distributing more than 50,000 posters. From July 22 to 24, they returned to Nyarambe. There, they reached ten more health areas serving 148,255 people across 116 villages and trained 290 more community health workers, 55 of them women.
In total, Environmental Defenders has trained 623 community health workers and distributed more than 116,000 posters in Alur across 23 health areas.
Environmental Defenders also trained 26 Mahagi journalists on Ebola, zoonotic disease, and countering rumors. In addition, it signed co-broadcasting agreements so the same spots reach every chiefdom. The clearest measure of impact came on July 17, at an evaluation meeting in Kolokoto with the chief medical officers of both zones.
Behavior change during the DRC’s 2026 Ebola outbreak
Dr. Pascal Adebati, chief medical officer of Nyarambe, noticed the change. Before the outbreak and the campaign, handshakes were the norm.
“When we move through the villages, we see that people avoid shaking hands. That proves that your radio programs and your posters are creating real change.” — Dr. Pascal Adebati, Chief Medical Officer, Nyarambe Health Zone
He added that hand sanitizer sold out at a local pharmacy within three days.
Dr. Adebati also credited trained community health workers with a rise in alerts reaching health centers. In one case, a relais warned him that a family was trying to bring a body from Mongbwalu into the zone, disguised as a living passenger with sunglasses and a hat, to pass checkpoints. Thanks largely to that tip, security services were able to step in.
Ufoyuru Mujangire, Nyarambe’s hygiene supervisor, remembers the early weeks differently. “When I went down to the shore of Lake Albert to sensitize communities, people booed me and shouted that there was no disease,” he said. Once Environmental Defenders arrived with its communication approach, he added, “the population quickly understood the danger.”
The most striking result is what has not happened. As of the August 30 report, Nyarambe and Angumu were still absent from the list of affected health zones. Meanwhile, the territory’s five other zones, Mahagi, Logo, Rimba, Aungba, and Kambala, had together recorded 39 confirmed cases and 15 deaths. Angumu had investigated 21 alerts, and two suspected cases tested negative.
“At the provincial health division in Bunia, we are often asked what our secret is. We proudly present the efforts of Environmental Defenders.” — Dr. Pascal Adebati
No one involved claims the credit belongs to communication alone. Both zones lie some distance from the mining corridors where transmission has been most intense. Both have also set up handwashing points at entry roads and health facilities. Still, the health authorities’ own assessment is that early, local-language messaging changed behavior before the virus arrived.
Thin defenses and urgent needs
The same meeting showed how thin the defenses are. Health workers in both zones reported shortages of gloves, masks, disinfectant, and protective suits. They also cited unpaid incentives, no standard treatment centers, and long distances to the nearest laboratory. At Agudi Usoke Health Center, midwife Ms. Akeche said nurses had not been trained to manage a suspected case.
In response, Environmental Defenders committed 5,000 US dollars to each health zone. The funds cover sample transport, refresher training, image boxes, and safe burial teams at seven busy crossing points.
Civil society has called for the campaign to extend along National Road 27, which links Bunia and Mongbwalu to Mahagi. Environmental Defenders plans more materials in Kilendu, Hema, and Swahili for Djugu, Irumu, and Mambasa, subject to funding.
Why a conservation group is fighting Ebola
Environmental Defenders is better known for its work on deforestation and mining in the Congo Basin than for public health. Yet it sees no contradiction. The outbreak began in a mining zone carved out of the forest. Epidemiologists on the ground link habitat destruction to the spillover of zoonotic diseases such as Ebola and mpox.
“If we kill the environment, the environment kills us too.” — Dr. Aubain Luambo, Mahagi Referral Health Center
For now, in the 2026 Ebola outbreak, the DRC’s front line runs through the people reading posters on the beaches of Lake Albert. Whether the two zones stay untouched will depend on the epidemic’s course. It will also depend on whether the gaps in equipment and training are closed before the first suspected case arrives.
Photos: Environmental Defenders.