DR Congo in June 2026: the most important developments in society
In the Democratic Republic of Congo in June 2026, the Ebola outbreak in the eastern Ituri province, with the city of Bunia at the centre of the response, dominated events. On 2 June the World Health Organization lowered its count of suspected cases from 906 to 116, and on 3 June it said the response was catching up, with confirmed cases at 344. The death toll passed 180 by 14 June, and on 15 June the country reported a record one-day rise in cases, one month after the outbreak was declared. By 19 June deaths had passed 200 and more than 70 medics had been infected. Conflict and mistrust in the east hindered the response, and some people questioned whether the outbreak was real, even as patients recovered. A new laboratory opened to speed up diagnosis, a Chinese medical team arrived on 3 June, and Russia sent 7,000 tests to Uganda and Congo.
The outbreak crossed borders on 24 June, when France confirmed its first case, a doctor who had returned from Congo and the first person in this outbreak to test positive outside Africa. The World Health Organization said trials of two Ebola treatments would begin in Congo the following week, and Air France suspended its Paris-Kinshasa flights on 26 June. The outbreak in Ituri was expected to last.
In politics, Kinshasa shut down on 3 June in protest against a proposed constitutional reform. On 13 June opposition leaders were injured during a protest against the reform.
by WorldBrief & Maksim Micheliov | AI-generated summary
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