Aid teams from the UN World Health Organization ( WHO) “cannot move freely to support the hospitals, even ambulances cannot run. It’s a situation that in public health is a nightmare,” said Dr Boureima Hama Sambo, WHO Representive in DRC.

A potential Ebola outbreak has been reported in the DRC, at a time when the Trump administration has paused communication with the WHO.

As UN agencies reported "relative calm" on Wednesday in the city of Goma in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), humanitarians warned that the chaos caused by advancing M23 rebel forces could fuel a region-wide health emergency.

Democratic Republic of Congo authorities are investigating 12 possible cases of the deadly Ebola virus in its northwest, Africa's main health body said on Thursday, though first tests had come up negative.

Staff at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been told to halt all communication with the World Health Organization.

The World Health Organization reports that over 2,000 people have been wounded and 45 have died due to fighting in Congo's Goma region. The clashes have heightened the risk of spreading diseases such as mpox,

Japan has sent the Democratic Republic of the Congo 50,000 doses of a vaccine against mpox, previously known as monkeypox.

The area was also the epicentre of an outbreak of a new strain of mpox, declared a public health emergency of international concern in August 2024. Dr. Marschang warned that the new wave of displacement will make it increasingly hard to track and treat the disease.

"Unfairly onerous payments" are cited in the executive order as a reason for WHO withdrawal. Countries’ dues are a percentage of their gross domestic product, meaning that as the world’s richest nation, the United States has generally paid more than other countries.

British foreign secretary laments lack of global attention to crises in Africa compared with conflicts in other regions - Anadolu Ajansı

Advances being made by the M23 rebel group in the Democratic Republic of Congo are "heightening the threat of a regional war," according to U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

Mpox, previously known as monkeypox, is a rare infection most commonly found in parts of central and east Africa. The seventh confirmed UK case was recorded in a person who had recently travelled to Uganda.