#republicofthecongo

Health workers at an Ebola treatment center in eastern Congo went on strike Saturday over payment issues, disrupting care for patients in the epicenter of the country’s rapidly growing outbreak.

Switzerland has stepped up its efforts to combat the Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is providing the World Health Organisation (WHO) with a further CHF1.6 million ($1.96 million). This brings the total Swiss aid since the start of the crisis to CHF4.6 million, the foreign ministry announced on Thursday. The additional contribution from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) is intended to strengthen the coordination of medical emergency teams. It will also support a plan to contain the disease in neighbouring countries such as South Sudan. According to the foreign ministry, thanks to support from its partners, the WHO has been able to expand its testing capacity in the affected areas from 200 to 400 tests per day. The network now comprises ten laboratories spread across the affected provinces, with a total capacity of over 2,000 tests per day. The SDC is also making an expert from the Swiss Humanitarian Aid Unit available to the WHO for ...

In tonight's edition, the Ebola outbreak in the DRC has crossed a devastating threshold, with more than 1,000 lives lost. Also, in Kenya, human rights groups warn that political “goons” are increasingly being used to disrupt rallies ahead of elections next year. And in Senegal, four years after devastating floods threatened the famous Pink Lake’s unique ecosystem, the lake is slowly regaining its iconic colour.

In tonight's show, the Ebola outbreak spreads to two more provinces. A Sudanese court sentences paramilitary leader Mohamed Hamdan Daglo and 15 others to death in absentia. Residents of the Niger Delta town of Billé take to the streets to demand government action over catastrophic pollution.

The outbreak of the rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebola has now affected five Congolese provinces.

France has confirmed its first Ebola case linked to the outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The infection comes weeks after European health authorities said there were no active Ebola cases in the EU.

A doctor returning from a humanitarian mission in Congo has tested positive for Ebola, the country's first case of the virus during the current outbreak, the health ministry has said.

A total of 100 people have recovered in the outbreak concentrated in the Ituri province since it was declared on May 15, Congo's Ministry of Health said Sunday. At least 365 patients are in hospitals or in isolation, it said.