However, all had symptoms including headaches, fever and vomiting, which are associated with Ebola<\/a>, a camp spokesperson, a bereaved father, three aid sources and a civil society leader told Reuters<\/em>.<\/p>\n People didn\u2019t just die like this before, camp spokesperson Desire Grodya Bapi told Reuters<\/em>.<\/p>\n The deaths in Kigonze, which has more than 15,000 residents, raise fears that Ebola may be circulating undetected<\/a> among eastern Congo\u2019s over five million displaced people, with resistance to testing compounding the challenge posed by severely limited sanitation measures.<\/p>\n Camp President Dz\u2019djo Ndrutsi Etienne said 10 people were buried this week alone. Grodya said the camp typically recorded between one and three deaths per month.<\/p>\n Justin Zanamuzi, director of Catholic aid organisation Caritas, which helps Kigonzes residents, said his team on Wednesday saw several bodies covered in sheets, including a pregnant woman and children.<\/p>\n Footage from Thursday shared by the civil society leader and verified by Reuters<\/em> showed health teams in hazmat suits disinfecting more bodies and preparing tiny coffins next to a crucifix as mourners wailed.<\/p>\n Our team tried to persuade people to accept doctors to inspect the bodies. They completely refused, Zanamuzi said.<\/p>\n The outbreak in the country<\/a> was first declared by Congolese officials on May 15, but the officials said the deaths had begun earlier in the month.<\/p>\n Grodya, the camp spokesperson, said health workers had taken samples from five victims, some of which had come back positive for Ebola.<\/p>\n Three aid sources also confirmed that the test samples on some of this week\u2019s victims had come back positive for Ebola, without specifying the number.<\/p>\n Camp resident Kato Lonu, 47, lost two children, including a six-month-old.<\/p>\n \u201cThese are conditions that no human being should have to live in. If you look around, people are dying one after another,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Four aid workers said the spike in deaths highlighted how communities were now more exposed to diseases such as Ebola as donors \u2014 including key contributor United States, under President Donald Trump \u2014 have cut funding for water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), which is essential in fighting a disease that spreads through bodily fluids such as human waste.<\/p>\n Data compiled by the United Nations showed that funding for toilets and handwashing stations in Congo more than halved between 2024 and 2025, to around $38 million, and this year\u2019s $80 million appeal is only 21 per cent funded.<\/p>\n Congo has hundreds of camps for civilians fleeing war, some home to 100,000 people.<\/p>\n Ebola deaths have already been recorded in another camp in the same province of Ituri, which has over 90pc of nearly 900 confirmed cases.<\/p>\n In Kigonze, large families share the same plastic tents spaced less than a meter apart and children wander its dirt alleyways barefoot.<\/p>\n There are toilets marked USAID \u2014 Washington\u2019s international aid agency dismantled by Trump \u2014 and an aid source said the agency helped fund the toilets\u2019 construction.<\/p>\n However, Grodya and the aid source said there were not enough toilets and they often overflowed.<\/p>\n \u201cThe latrines, they fill up very quickly, and people have to empty them themselves, with their bare hands,\u201d Grodya said.<\/p>\n<\/a>Bodies covered in sheets<\/h2>\n
<\/a>Overflowing toilets among challenges<\/h2>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2026\/06\/201922025831de7.webp\")
<\/div><\/a>US aid to fight Ebola<\/h2>\n